


The Carnival Committee

by soccerkeeper6



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel (Movies), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 07:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4011886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soccerkeeper6/pseuds/soccerkeeper6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper Potts has been elected as Student Body Vice President for her senior year. Excited to work with her best friend, Tony Stark, and the rest of the leadership council, they go into the first task of the year- to pull off homecoming week- with a cut and dry attitude. And that is exactly how it goes, especially when Pepper has as great of an assistant and girlfriend as Natasha Romanoff by her side. That is, until everything the duo plans becomes as far from cut and dry as an event can get. </p><p>Peptasha HS!AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Everything seemed to be lining up nicely, Pepper thought as she and others waved to the bleachers on either side of them. The election was the last thing she had needed to wrap up before senior year. Granted, with her running mate being Tony Stark, they guy who blew up the chemistry lab, Pepper hadn’t been too worried about their success in the election, but it was nice to finally see it set in stone. There was no longer doubt whether or not she was the Associated Student Body vice president for next school year.

Pepper looked at the other ASB officers, all brandishing their million dollar plastic smiles. Tony had won presidency, she being his vice, and not all due to popularity. Probably. Phil Coulson earned the position of student relations and Steve Rogers got secretary. Bruce Banner, after three years of running, was treasurer. They were quite the furious five, especially when they all bowed and walked to their seats together, waiting for the end rally announcements.

After what seemed like an hour later, Pepper vaguely realized with her head slumped and eyes a little sleepy that the rally had ended. Everyone was flooding out in a rush. A familiar hand clamped onto Pepper’s shoulder as she got up to leave with them, and dragged her beneath the bleachers. She fought a smile as she was lead to the center where a box sat.

“To celebrate!” He whispered, then flipped the container over, revealing a poorly made cheese and spinach omelet. “For VP VP. Because, you know, Vice President Virginia P-”

“Really, Tony?” She interrupted him with a laugh, partially at the joke but mostly at his omelets, because, after four years of winning elections together and celebrating in the same way, one would have thought his cooking would improve. She tore a sad looking burnt piece off with her fingers and held it up to Tony’s mouth. “Poison check, Mr. President?”

And then they were both laughing, Tony grabbing the food between his fingers, then tossing it hastily back onto the plate. They headed out from under the bleachers with the gross plate of food in hand and trashed the whole dish in the first trash can found as they headed back to class with an arm around each other, and it was nice. It was all so nice.

Next year was going to be nice.

**  
**  


Pepper believed in looking like you belong in where you want to go versus where you are. She made sure to follow that rule. Most days, that meant dark jeans and semi-formal tops. It was that which helped her push through high school, snag internships, and win people over, but looking out her window in the middle of August, on the first day of the second week of school, the only place she wanted to go was the beach. Sadly, swimsuits were against school dress code, and there would be no point in going in Monday bearing her main philosophy if it was just going to force her into detention, so she willed herself into an off white floral sundress. It would have to do. She grabbed her purple canvas backpack, mostly empty since none of her teachers had an advance supply lists and with a sigh drove her convertible to Stark mansion pretending it were still summer.

JARVIS let Pepper in, giving her all access to Tony’s quarters on request. She made a beeline for her friend’s closet and didn’t bother gaping at what she saw. There were clothes piled chaotically on the floor. His mirrors were shattered at a height that was distinctly not Tony’s. And in the middle of it was a guilty looking helper bot sporting underwear on his head.

“Oh, Dummy.” She murmured. “You special, special little bot. I’m just going to try my best to go around you, okay?” The bot chirped and whirled its claw, ashamed. Pepper sighed again and picked up the nearest t-shirt and jeans she could salvage for Tony. Whether they were dirty or not, she wasn’t concerned. There was only so much time left until they would be late for class; she didn’t have the time to be picky.

“Rise and shine.” She spoke loudly and clearly tossing both items of clothing onto Tony’s unmoving head that was snuggled into a pillow. A lazy arm reached up and dragged the outfit under the covers.

“No,” was the muffled response.

Pepper spotted Tony’s shoes by his window and picked them up. “I guess you don’t need a ride then. Later, Tony!” Her feet scuffled against the flooring, loud and dramatic in the stillness of morning. Tony shot up, holding onto his comforter to keep his chest from being exposed.

“I’m coming! Give me a second, Jesus, what are we, saving the world? Turn around, I’m putting my shirt on.”

She rolled her eyes, but turned. He had needed heart surgery freshman year, but decided to sign for an experimental implant instead. He had loved it for the first day or so, showed it to her and their friends. But then his dad, who was absent for the entire debacle, showed up. He wasn’t nearly as impressed by the glowing blue metal. Words were exchanged between the two and Tony didn’t show anyone it after that.

“Okay, let me grab my backpack… Pepper, where’s my, oh! Right. The closet.” He got up, only to look into the war zone. “Dummy! You pile of scraps, what is wrong with you? You know what, don’t answer that. Just… right, Pepper could you?”

She rolled her eyes and waded through the mess and glass for his backpack, tossing it to him.

Tony swung it on and then turned to Dummy again. “There will be words and reboots.” He said, then headed out to the car.

Pepper followed, eager to get away from the morning oddness, and get to school on time.

**  
**  


The five ASB officers had the honor of sitting at a giant table in the front of the leadership class facing everyone else. It was one of the perks of being the top. Twice a week, Mostly Mondays and Wednesdays, they were in the school’s theatre, specifically the pit. According to higher ups, funding ran out. ASB officers ran most if not all meetings, leaving their instructor to simply babysit.

Pepper was scanning the room before they started and noticed Tony trying to launch a pen cap from his mouth to a student. While Hill, their teacher, started the mandatory beginning of year introduction, she kicked Tony in his knee. Even if Clint Barton’s shirt did have a purple bullseye target on it, they had an image to maintain and respect to earn. A familiar petite redheaded girl next to Clint nudged him, pointing out the potential projectile still hanging out of the engineer’s mouth.

Pepper mouthed a hasty ‘Sorry’ to the two near victims, then started signing the stack of papers Bruce handed to her. When she looked back up, the redhead smiled. Pepper didn’t know much about her, except that she was a junior, and thick as thieves with Clint. She also had gorgeous facial features, Pepper noticed when the girl quirked an eyebrow in her direction. Pepper realized her gaze had lingered just a tad too long. She focused elsewhere, turning her chair to face Ms. Hill.

In the back of the room she could hear Jasper Sitwell, one of the freshmen, already snoring. She pretended it was the sound distracting her as she began drifting off, focusing on the facial features of the girl. She seemed so familiar. Tony must have noticed Pepper drifting. He shifted and kicked her under the knee, smirking. She smiled right back letting him know that he would be walking home soon.

She stole another glance at the redhead, noticing the slope of her cheekbones, and the hard, focused gaze of her green eyes. She was so pale, and Pepper wondered how someone with hair her color could have such little freckle. It didn’t looked dyed, but her eyebrows were more brown than red, though Pepper didn’t exactly have strawberry blonde brows to match what grew on top either, so-

“Virginia,” Tony interrupted her thoughts again, grinning even wider when she gave him a sour look. “Why don’t you explain to our council what committees are available for sign ups?”

Bruce smirked also, ever amused by their dynamic. Pepper shuffled the signed papers in front of her to look authoritative, then stood up.

“Alright. The class will be divided into five groups of six. These groups will meet one day a week during class. There must be a grade and gender mix in the groups, or you will be split up and moved. Otherwise, you have the freedom of choosing.

“One of the five of us will be the head of each group. Tony’s is the dance and rally committee, Bruce’s is fundraising. I will be overseeing special events. Then, we have Steve’s group, community service, which includes fundraising for local charitable needs as well as organizing school-wide volunteer events. Phil’s group will be wellness, which will strive to make the campus feel safe, clean, and welcoming, especially to new kids and freshman. This also means that only one freshman will be allowed on this committee due to experience and familiarity with the school.” Pepper took a breath and smiled politely, her eyes flickering to the girl again.

“The sign up sheet for each committee is up here in front of whichever one of us is running the group. Make a line in front of the list you want. We’ll finalize and post the lists by tomorrow.” She sat down and watched as people tripped over themselves to sign up for their committee of choice.

**  
**  


Sitting in the ASB office that afternoon, sipping water pointedly to fill the silence, Pepper finally said it.

“They really did give us the cream of the crop to work with,” She sighed incredulously.

“Whatever, Potts,” Tony took a swig of his cup. “At least Richards and Von Doom –God, who marries a guy with a name like ‘Doom’?– will occupy each other. I have Galaga George in my committee.”

Steve looked at him, shocked. “You don’t even know the kid.”

Tony grinned. “I don’t need to.”

Steve rolled his eyes.

“If anyone cares,” Bruce started. “I rather like my group.”

Tony snatched Bruce’s sign up sheet. “What do we have here? Peggy Carter, Jan Van Dyne, fresh meat Ben Urich, Team Nelson and Murdock, and Natasha Romanoff.” He threw the paper behind him and theatrically fell back into his seat. “I call dibs on trading first.”

“We’re not trading anyone,” Phil leaned forward, dark and serious, then something brightened in his eyes. “I think we can handle this.”

Pepper sighed and took his sheet. “Phil, two thirds of your team are the most self-motivated, brilliant girls I know. I have a photographer with a bug fixation, Thor, freshman Frank Castle, and just a reminder, our favorites everyone: Richards and Doom.”

“But you do have Sif, too.” Phil pointed out, and Pepper acknowledged his point with a nod.

Tony bitterly took Steve’s list out of the blond’s hands. He rattled off a judgment for each name. “Hot, not, asshole, scary, oh boy, Rhodey! That two faced... He chose you over me! He left me to the wolves!” He pretended to faint forward out of his chair. No one caught him, and he hit the floor with a thud.

Ms. Hill walked in at the noise. She looked at Tony, then the rest of them. Pepper offhandedly explained, “The committees are awful this year. Tony’s being dramatic.”

Their instructor sharpened her eyes at them. “Figure it out. You all signed up for this and I expect you to handle it. And Tony? Get up.”

He stumbled to his feet then shot off a brilliant grin. “As you wish.”

Phil shot a rubber band at him. Tony whipped around to him. “Hey!”

Ms. Hill closed the door and left.

**  
**  


That Wednesday, at the next leadership meeting, homecoming planning was officially underway. Pepper sat in the middle of her committee half-circle, trying to organize the committee's first move. She looked down at her to do list, then began her talk. “Okay, we will be in charge of the homecoming carnival, and how that works is we all call the clubs and class officers and have them sign up to run booths to earn funding." She mentally checked off the first bullet. "Then, we’ll organize the booth layout, ticket sales, order prizes and supplies, and set it up on the day of.

“We’ll call the clubs and officers in the next two days, then have the meeting for sign ups next week. I'm thinking we start ticket sales homecoming week. The Friday of homecoming week is when we will build the carnival booths on the grass. I’ll talk to Hill about the ordering of prizes and game replacements later, so no worries about that.” She checked off the rest of the list in her mind before continuing.

“I have the list of clubs here, along with their phone numbers. Initial next to six clubs you are willing to call, and yes, we have to call, not text. Let’s keep it professional too."

Everyone in the group seemed to slouch.

“I know, calling is rough," Pepper continued. "However, just text me when you’re done and tell me what clubs want to participate. My number is at the top of the list for your reference. Also, tell the clubs the sign up meeting will be in here, next Monday, at lunch. They need at least one officer from the club to represent them. If they can’t, we can try and work something out. Lastly, make sure they know who you are and how to contact us if they have questions.” She paused as her committee jot down her words and began initialing the paper. “I’m going to go ask fundraising about money handling. I’ll be right back. Pass the paper around.”

Pepper gracefully rose from her chair, gripping her checklist in one hand, and supporting herself with the other. The ASB officers promised to confer with each other if something didn't seem entirely within the bounds of their committee. In all caps, Pepper had put next to the club meeting: ASK BRUCE FOR FUNDRAISER GREEN LIGHT. She focused on her raising as she marched up to Bruce's committee.

Unfortunately, she had been too focused. She didn’t realize she had interrupted Bruce's team talk until it was too late.

Pepper blushed at her faux pas when Bruce turned to look at her with a glare. “Oh, god, I’m sorry.” She took as step backwards. “I’ll come back later. Sorry to interrupt.”

Bruce pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on. “No, it’s fine. Go.” He bit the inside of his lower lip and waited for her to speak.

Pepper clasped hands together and took a deep breath in hopes to calm her red face, and addressed Bruce directly. “My committee is handling the carnival, which as you know is a large fundraiser for clubs. But, we will also be incorporating class and ASB fundraising booths this year. I know that while the cubs have to handle finance on their own, it is required class and ASB go through leadership. Specifically, your committee. But you all have your own homecoming assignment to work on right now, so I need to know how we can get both to run without interrupting your group too much. Of course, we can have ASB moderate themselves to make it easier. Also, I already have the fundraising guidelines and forms prepped for signing at Student Activities. But I still need your committee input for everything class and ASB.”

Bruce had dropped her gaze a while ago, so she began to glance across the faces of each member in the circle instead. Quickly, her eyes locked with keen green ones from the first day red headed girl. Pepper dropped her gaze and turned to Bruce as she fought a second blush.

Bruce scratched his ear with the back of his pen contemplatively. “We have to organize and oversee the separate meeting for all class officers wanting to fundraise for their class through your committee?”

“According to what we agreed on.” Pepper reminded, gaining control of her cheeks and turning back to the group, trying to tell her mind to stop developing crushes.

Matt Murdock, the vice president for the juniors, spoke up. “Would it be easier if we just have one representative from our group shadow yours until after homecoming, and report back then?”

“That would speed up communication and efficiency.” Foggy, the junior president added.

“I could do that.” Pepper’s crush chimed in.

“Are you sure, Natasha?” Bruce checked.

“Organizing the meeting for the classes and printing guidelines,” Natasha confirmed, her cheekbones standing out as she gave a reassuring smile that made Pepper’s heart flicker. “I’ll handle it.”

The back of Pepper’s mind tingled for a moment, the idea of getting to learn more about the girl passing through and shaking things up. Pepper smiled brightly. “Wonderful, thank you.” She folded her to do list in half, all tasks completed. “I’ll get your number after class and text you later with our schedule leading up to D-day, if that’s alright?” A small part of her chastised her at acquiring the nine significant digits, which could so easily be used for other purposes. The other part knew it meant nothing, and would be strictly professional. Pepper ignored the small part, and how exposed she felt between her ask, and Natasha’s answer.

Natasha nodded, approving of the plan, and Pepper walked away swiftly, eager to take a deep, calming breath anywhere else. She almost made it back to her group before she realized Natasha had trailed up to her. She was holding out a piece of paper. “I actually have to leave early today,” She told Pepper, nonchalant.

Pepper took it, her fingers lightly brushing the small, firm ones that held the scrap of paper in between.

“Send me a text saying it’s Virginia so I know who it is, please.” Natasha gestured to the number.

“Will do.” Pepper said in the most casual way she could manner, her thoughts still on the brush in of fingers. She took the paper to her committee and sat down registering the name Natasha used too late to deal with.

 

Pepper bit her lip while bouncing a small pencil on its eraser in a tight rhythm. Tony, meanwhile, angrily stomped around the tiny break room. She ignored him. For two class periods, Pepper had been counting down her Thursday meeting with Natasha. She was bracing herself to stay professional, on track, and collected. Stay professional, stay on track, stay collected. Stay professional, stay on track, stay collected. It had become meditative, rolling these three things over and over in her mind. However, the ansy Tony was determined to break her focus and make her late now that the clock had rolled around.

“And then, he dismantled my new sound system I was integrating into the gym for the rally! But, no. No, no, no. That isn’t enough! Guess what he did, Peps? Guess!”

She lolled her head back in an attempt to give Tony’s rant as little attention as possible. “What did he do?”

“He tries to reroute the signal and ends up blowing out three hours of hard work instead. We’re back to square one!”

Pepper lazily looked up at him from her phone. “You know the gym didn’t actually need a new sound system in the first place? Everything’s fine.” She began tapping the pencil more aggressively, as the time shifted forward on the analog clock. The eraser that had been the bounce for the pencil fell off this time, and she collected it in her palm.

Tony threw himself into the chair across from her, exasperated. “I want him out of my squad.”

“No.”

“But Pepper!”

“No. He’s not even in your ‘squad’, Tony. He’s in you committee. You don’t always get to choose who you work with.”

He turned away, then came back with a smoulder. “Please?” He said as he forced his eyes to fill with tear. “Can’t we send him back to preschool?”

“I’m pretty sure Justin Hammer is twelve, Tony. He only skipped a grade or two. And you’re barely fifteen. You are the same age as freshman right now, not to mention being barely twelve at the start of freshman year.”

“So I skipped a grade or three, we all have our flaws. I’m much cuter. Send him back to the baby factory.” Tony held onto the smolder like a lifeline.

Pepper rolled her eyes. “I’m going to go to my meeting about the carnival now. Why don’t you go smolder at someone who will buy it?”

Tony put a hand over his heart. “I just want you to know, I feel offended and abandoned. Also, you got to pick who you worked with, and she is smoking, so you have to feel extra guilty now that you have ruined my life.”

Pepper waved on her way out of the room, the guilt nicking her on exit, and her meeting began to feel just a little less sweet. She rolled her eyes and brushed it off. “Bye, Tony.”

**  
**  


Striding into the library, Pepper found that Natasha has shown up at the same time. She opened the door for the younger girl, then followed her to the table of her choice. Pepper’s eyes followed Natasha’s purple-black backpack dangly limply from her shoulders, down her arm to the straps making her short sleeve roll up slightly. She took a calming breath to refocus after gazing at how toned Natasha’s arms were, and how the shape of her from behind was just so… Pepper caught herself and took another breath. Professional, on track, collected. Natasha led her to the center of the library, people surrounding them on all sides. There were exactly two chairs left, and Pepper took one.

“Wonderful.” Pepper settled into her seat, pulling out a notepad and pen while Natasha fished a pen and paper from backpack. “Hopefully this won’t take too long. I’m sure you had lunch plans”

“I don’t mind.” Natasha said, and Pepper couldn’t help but smile a little before listening to her dive straight to the point. She flipped the paper she had retrieved from her pack so Pepper could read it right side up. It was a detailed checklist, meticulously organized in the same way Pepper had made hers when she first approached Natasha.

Natasha pointed to each item as she spoke. “I’ve booked the room you said we would need for the club meeting next Friday since I had to go to student activities anyway, and I’ve called all sets of officers –with the exception of ASB –to check that they could attend. They can.”

Pepper began to jot down ‘Confirm ASB attendance’ when Natasha lightly touched her hand, and Pepper froze.

“I don’t think we’ll need to confirm, but I’ll have my phone set to send out pre-typed texts Monday anyway. That way you don’t have to go around chasing them.”

“It’s really not a problem,” Pepper pulled her hand away, heart beating a hair faster than before. “I see them all the time.”

“It’s my burden as fundraising liaison. Let me cover it.” Natasha left her hand on Pepper’s side of the table.

Pepper smiled at the sincerity in Natasha’s voice. “I won’t tell Bruce.” She promised. “I can do my share.”

“Let me cover it.” Natasha repeated. “Really. It’s not a big deal.”

“Alright.” Pepper gave in. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Natasha pulled her hand back, then pointed to the next itemized task. “I do have a job for you, though. I was thinking it would be easier if you came to the meeting, both as an officer, and as a unit with myself. To make sure that the page is always the same for us. Also, then it wouldn't matter whether the other officers come or not. I figure since you’ll be delegating shifts to those in leadership anyway.” She slid the paper back to herself and made one last checkmark. “My biggest question is that, though we have the papers for the clubs and officers to sign that obligate them to the booths they will fundraise with, do we have a list of pre-made booths for them to be assigned to? Or, will they have to create their own?”

Pepper looked wide-eyed in shock at Natasha, who quirked an eyebrow right back at her expression. “I’m sorry, did I miss something?” Natasha asked her.

Pepper snapped out of her trance. “No! No. It’s perfect, you’re…” She took a breath. “When you said you’d handle it you really meant that. Thank you. And there is a list. I forgot about it.

“We do offer a list, but, they can also create their own booth. The difference is with ours, we cover overhead, and give a flat fifty dollars to them. Other booths, mainly food booths, pay for their own overhead but get all revenue they generate, which is usually more than fifty. That’s about it. The administration deals with the blow up structures, getting booths themselves and what not, we just staff them.

“Which is why I need to get another form. In addition to signing for the booth, they’ll need a list of volunteers for all shifts for their booth by the end of the week. Too many skip outs last time. Any club that doesn’t turn it in, Hill says we’re scrapping. Anyone who has flake volunteers, doesn’t get paid.”

“Great.” Natasha said, putting away her paper that was by then fully annotated and updated. “Are you going to get the form right now?”

“I probably should. Hill can run off copies tomorrow morning for us.” Pepper put away her own notepad.

“I can come with you. Cleared my lunch plans for this, so I have a while.” Natasha’s sincerity hit Pepper square in the chest again, and she struggled to come up with an answer.

Professional, on track, collected. Pepper ran in the back of her head. Choosing head over heart, Pepper politely declined. “It’s fine. I have to run past art history to drop off a flash drive from a million years ago.”

A small, cruel part of Pepper was hoping to see Natasha look disappointed. But instead, the junior looked not at all fazed. Even understanding. And Pepper felt the earlier pang of guilt echo in her chest.

“No problem. Let me know when you have the copies.” Natasha swung her backpack on and pushed in her chair.

Pepper rose. “I’ll see you next Friday, then?” She desperately tried to recover herself. “Unless you want to have a confirmation meeting sometime before that?”

Natasha pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “I think we’ll be on top of it enough to not need that. But if anything goes wrong, you have my number, and I believe I am free tomorrow during lunch.”

“I do, and I am free that time as well.” Pepper declared, cringing on the inside. “And again, thank you so much. Tell Clint I said ‘Hi’.”

“Not a problem, Virginia.” Natasha said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and reeked of professionalism, then sauntered away and was out the door before Pepper even had her backpack over her shoulder.

She let out a breath. Professional, on track, collected. She pulled out her notepad, and jotted down, ‘Make sure Natasha knows I don’t actually go by Virginia?’.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Thursday hit, and Pepper sent out a text to all of her committee after school while waiting for Tony in the car.

Club participation status?

Peter was the first to respond: All laughed and hung up after introduction. Do you want me to try texting instead?

She let out a sad breath. Peter Parker had it rough as the punching bag of SHIELD. It really came down to his mouth, but no one deserved to be hit for being wordy. She knew that from Tony’s freshman year experience.

She sent back: Sorry about that. And no. The fundraiser is a privilege, not a right for them, and they missed their offer. Send them to me if they have any issues with this.

No one else had any problems with getting replies, and overall, twenty seven out of thirty two clubs were going to participate. She sent a quick Thanks to everyone, then switched tabs on her phone to Natasha.

Pepper -> Natasha: I have 27 clubs nailed down. How are the classes going?

Natasha -> Pepper: Five for five.

Pepper -> Natasha: Do you want to consolidate the club meeting next Friday?

Natasha -> Pepper: Define your version of consolidate?

Pepper thought for a moment.

Pepper -> Natasha: Same room, same day, you take the first quarter of the lunch period, I take the other third.

Natasha -> Pepper: Not sure we’re on the same page then. Maybe we will need a Friday meeting between us after all. Meet me at lunch, and we’ll work out the kinks. I like everything but the time slots.

Pepper stared at the phone, fingers hovering over the not yet typed: Or I can call you and we’ll work it out now –Because who even meets face to face anymore? Especially when the thought of meeting for another lunch brings back memories of hand touching, and backside staring-- but Tony had other plans for what she would be doing at that moment. Whipping the passenger door open and sliding in, he grabbed the phone from her. “I’ll text, you drive. I may or may not have done something that will soon cause this show to be put on hold so let’s get it on the road.”

She looked at her best friend who was covered in black soot and red and yellow paint, and laughed.

“Drive!” He shouted.

Pepper pulled out of the parking lot and took an alternate route back to Tony’s. After he explained how he was cornered in the art room, Pepper told him to text Natasha back with a curt, “Okay.”

He pestered her the entire ride.

“Are you guys an item yet? Have you asked her out?”

Pepper shook her head. “We are work partners, Tony. That’s unethical.”

Tony shrugged. “If you’re really partners, that means you’re on equal footing. That’s totally ethical. Look at Steve and myself. Or Bruce. Even Coulson. I could ask any of them out, and it would be totally ethical, because we are all on the top of the school.”

“First off, Bruce has a girlfriend so that would be unethical. Second, dating Steve or Phil will be illegal, because they are both turning 18 this year.”

“Future tense.” Tony called her out. “And that’s only if we fuck.”

“Please don’t.” Pepper begged. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Technically the legal system applies to you and Natasha, just a heads up.”

“We are not getting together.”

“But you’re interested? Don’t think I didn’t see you when you were waiting to meet her. Or that I didn’t look through your phone.”

“I didn’t write anything about my crush on my phone.” Pepper turned off the main road towards Tony’s.

“There we go. On record for the court. Thank you.”

“It’s just a crush, Tony.”

“Are you a front or back kind of person, Pep?” Tony pried. “Because I have seen both on Natasha and I wholeheartedly approve.”

“Oh, god.” Pepper turned on the radio. “I am not having a conversation with you about this.”

“I’m just saying.” He twisted to face her, struggling against the seat belt. “I’m kind of a chest person? Whatever I find there I’m happy with.”

Pepper resisted a snide remark about how he liked everybody’s chests except his own.

“Really, Tony? Remind me to buy you condoms for when you turn eighteen in twenty years. You are going to die of syphilis.” Pepper snapped instead, falling into step with his sarcasm.

“I resent that.” Tony faced forward again. “I bet Natasha is going to transfer secret Russian nanodes to you when you make out, and it’s going to alter your DNA. Then you’ll start coming after capitalists like myself.”

Pepper glanced at him, eyebrows up high, “You should tell her that.”

“You wish.”

Pepper turned onto Tony’s street. “You need to find a date and stop meddling with my life.”

“Working on it.” Tony unbuckled early, grabbing his backpack. “You coming over?”

“Sure.”

****  
  


The last Friday lunch before the club meeting rolled around quickly, and once again Pepper found herself waiting for Tony to leave so she could meet Natasha.

“Tony, how bad could Justin have been?” Pepper asked, glancing at the door anxiously, imagining the short redhead striding in. Tony’s voice quickly snapped her out of the thought.

“Pep, I sent him away and instead of going home, he conned Coulson into letting him alter the parade floats.” He paused for dramatic effect. “The floats set on fire after five minutes of his tinkering! This is bigger than my committee and group now, it’s.. it’s…”

Phil chose the wrong time to walk in. Tony pointed at him to finish his thought. “Tell her!”

He looked Pepper dead in the eye. “He said he could help with a squeaking wheel. I leave for five minutes, come back and there’s this thing that looks like a bad job of something Tony is trying to make,”

“Hover repulsors.” Tony chimed in.

Phil continued. “And all the sudden the thing floats up, then combusts. It would have been spectacular had it not burned two weeks of my committee’s full attention. We have been working on them since the first day of school. The only group to work since the first day.” He set his backpack down on the table, unzipped it, and produced a roll of powdered mini donuts. He ate one with lightning quickness, as not to been seen by the librarian, then spoke again. “Plan of action?”

Pepper rubbed her temples. “I don’t have time for this, guys.”

Tony laughed. “Oh, you will make time when it’s your stuff he ruins next.”

“Just,” She gritted out her least favorite words. “Have Hill deal with him. Better yet, get Steve to get Hill to do it. Hill will get it done for him.”

Tony and Phil shared knowing smiles. “Are you saying that you are for the exploitation of our Steven?” Tony smirked at her. He opened the door, revealing Steve walking in. “What a crazy random happenstance. Hey, Steve! Pepper wants to EMQPHRTGU --“ Pepper had lunged to cover his mouth.

“We need you to do us a favor, Steve.” She said with her hand still locked over Tony’s mouth. Phil stayed silent and in the background. Tony licked her hand in a failed attempt to escape. “Phil will explain.” She said, glaring at Tony and Phil blushed before stepped forward. She mouthed a silent thank you to him the hauled Tony off with her to the meeting, only releasing them once they were outside.

“Did I strike a nerve? I struck a nerve.”

She ignored him and focused on another person. “Natasha!” Pepper acknowledged the other girl who was standing outside the library with a bag and amused expression. Pepper turned back to Tony. “I’ll meet you at the car after school.”

He gave her a shit eating grin. “I bet you will. Happy dining.”

She walked away, bushing off Tony’s odd comment, to go and talk with Natasha.

“We’re going to have to move location.” Pepper said, before Natasha could ask.

“That’s fine.” Natasha coolly said, dropping her amused expression for a more focused one. “I know a place.”

****  
  


A short walk to the building diagonal, and they sat at a secluded, shady picnic table. “I brought you lunch.” Natasha said, reaching into the bag she had brought and producing an oval take out bowl with a tin foil covering.

Pepper turned to her. "You what?" She was shocked. "You got me Chipotle?" The back of her mind began tingling again, and the tips of her lips turned up.

"Well," Natasha brushed her bangs off her brow. "Tony said you usually work through lunch, but I figured you'd be hungry all the same. He told me your order, but if you don't want it, I can feed it to Clint in my next class."

Pepper considered it for a moment. “Are you having any?”

Natasha rolled her eyes, and pulled out a second container. “You aren’t that special, Virginia.”

Pepper decided she was beginning to get used to her using that name, especially when Natasha said it with a familiarity only Tony and her Mom used. It was like a kind nickname instead of the monstrosity she had been avoiding since fourth grade.

“But, like I said,” Natasha continued. “whatever you want. I get it if lunch isn’t your thing.” She waved a hand off, then set it on the table, clearly giving her an out.

“No. Thank you.” Pepper put her hand on Natasha’s gently, and Natasha glanced at it curiously. Pepper blushed and pulled it away, ignoring the electric feel she got. Professional, on task, collected. “I do usually skip lunch, but Chipotle is great. Thank you so much. It was very kind of you to think of me.”

“No problem.” Natasha opened up her container, realized what was missing, and dug in the bag again for forks. She handed one to Pepper, who took it and then opened her take out tin to find that it was her exact order that she always got.

“You’re an easy person to think about.” Natasha added, and Pepper could have swore she almost blushed.

Natasha quickly switching gears while poking her burrito bowl with the utensil. “So what’s your idea on our timeframes, for the meeting specifically?” She took a bite, the lettuce elegantly navigated into her mouth, and pink lips softly closing around it.

Pepper mixed the lettuce like it was second-nature, focusing on the movement of the leaves rather than the movement of Natasha’s lips and the words that had come out of them and the way her hands felt softer this time, as though she had exfoliated over the weekend. Maybe in a nice warm bath, with nice smelling bubbles, and music, and...

“Virginia?” Natasha zoned her in.

“Hm?” Pepper looked up, then mentally shook herself. “Ten minutes for yours with the officers and twenty for my part with the clubs, I was thinking?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, and Pepper knew she wanted an explanation.

“It’s just that, I don’t think you’ll need as much time, with only five pairs-“

“-five groups of four.” Natasha interrupted, correcting the numbers, and asserting her position, but Pepper continued on.

“-and I’ll be having at least twenty seven pairs, most of which from clubs that won’t even last past first semester, and they’ll need to have explained what’s available to them. Then there’s the finance, which I’ll need to talk to Bruce about-“

“Or me since I’m representing Bruce,” Natasha taped out something on her phone, placing her fork at the edge of her bowl, dangerously balanced on the lip.

“And then we’ll need a blanket contract and approval from administration for everyone that I’ll have to pass out to be signed.”

“Which I will print for you.” Natasha interrupted again.

“If you wanted, most of this your group can just join my discussion to hear, since the only part that is different for them is the beginning. I know you’ll be able to handle that quickly without rushing. That’s why I’m saying ten twenty split.”

Natasha nodded patiently. “I’m just concerned about the commute from their classes to where the meeting will be held. It will shorten the amount of time I have to speak significantly, so it may be better to have a five minute window built in to mine for arrival allowance.” She blinked at Pepper like she was waiting to see her move in a game of chess, all sparks and glints gone from her eyes. Like a switch to professional had been suddenly flipped on. Pepper stepped up to the challenge.

“A fifteen/fifteen split, you’re saying?”

“More of fifteen/seventeen because you could drag into passing period by a minute or two if need be.” Natasha took another bite of her food, punctuating herself.

Pepper fought a clever smile; she knew a sales pitch when she heard one. “Does it really take five minutes to get anywhere on campus?” Pepper asked, taking a bite of her food.

Natasha pursed her lips, recognizing the fault in her argument, and dropped her eyes. “I suppose not.”

“Would thirteen/seventeen not including two minutes before bell and two minutes after be doable?”

Natasha smiled with just a hint of smugness and something else Pepper couldn’t place. “Sure.”

“Perfect.” Pepper took out her phone and punched the date in. “It’s official then.”

Natasha did the same with her phone. “Great.” And just like that, her eyes were up friendly again. Pepper noticed how her shoulders slumped just a little, and her outward energy disappeared, making her seem quieter. It was like she had removed armor now that the battle was over, and Pepper wondered how much she still had on. They ate in silence until Natasha’s phone lit, and she picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “I should go find Clint now. He wants my leftovers.”

Pepper chuckled slightly at the idea of Clint waiting for scraps like a puppy. “I should go too.” Pepper ignored the part of her that wanted to ask Natasha to stay. “Thanks again for helping organize this. And the food. I guess I owe you a meal.”

Natasha smirked, “Well, I did give you my number faster than I’ve ever given it before.”

Pepper laughed as Natasha swayed off towards the trees in the center of campus.

“Later, Virginia.” The redhead called behind her.

“Bye.” Pepper walked in the opposite direction, shoving what was left the food Natasha had brought her into her backpack for later, then circled back around to the library. The fact that the route gave her a glimpse at Natasha, slumped against a tree expressionless, as Clint shoveled her food in his mouth, was a coincidence. And maybe she felt just a little spark when Natasha noticed her and gave the tiniest of smiles before getting flicked by Clint, turning her attention to him. But, it was mostly just to take a stroll before getting inside where everyone else was waiting for her.

****  
  


Pepper quickly spotted her group as she scanned the packed library. She gave a small wave to Bruce, who responded with one finger to his lips, and another pointing at Tony. She carefully approached the table, hovering behind Tony, who was too focused on attacking his iPad in a flurry of fingers to notice her at all. She glanced over the metal robotic suit he had made for Halloween in one window of his monitor, and peculiar looking code in the next.

“Like what you see, Peps?” Tony said without looking up.

“Your programming proves to always enamor me, Tony.”

He closed the window and spun around to face her. “Good. You realize this glass has a reflection, right?”

Pepper smiled back at him cheekily. “News to me,” She joked, then took the empty chair next to him.

Bruce sat upright, pushing his books on the table forward so he could lean on his elbows. “So, how’s the carnival planning with Natasha going?”

Tony slapped his iPad down on the table. “Natasha’s your second?” He gave Steve a light punch to the shoulder to get his attention. “Steve, this sounds like a dictation attempt. We should probably begin forming our alliances now, before it gets really…” He searched for the word. “Fiery.”

Steve refused to look away from his Spanish homework. “You’ve known they’ve been together for almost two days now.”

“Working together.” Pepper interjected. “Not ‘been.’”

“I don’t know.” Bruce started, glancing at Pepper with his eyes dancing. “Romanoff and Potts has a nice ring to it. And two days is practically forever.”

“Assonance.” Steve muttered, turning to a page with people from the nineties learning to text. “I’m sure Natasha has already doodled it.”

“You talk to Natasha Romanoff?” Tony asked.

“We’ve had some required classes together.” Steve wrote down the beginnings of a conjugation.

“I really don’t see why she would do that,” Pepper shifted the subject. “But to answer Bruce, it’s been really good. She’s very easy to work with. I’m shocked you don’t want her back.”

“Honestly, I will be needing an extra hand. Got anyone you can send over to shadow for me?”

Pepper thought about who she could send, and one committee member in particular came to mind. “Probably. I’ll talk to him.”

“Can I have an attractive helping hand?” Tony asked abruptly, still stuck on Natasha. “In exchange for, say, Justin?”

Pepper opened her mouth to answer, but someone else spoke. “I think that’d be a no.” Phil said for her. He grabbed a chair from another table and pulled it to theirs. They made room and he sat in between the two.

“Great.” Tony said, then opened his iPad back up.

Pepper rolled her eyes and shut his iPad. “You’re being shallow and bratty.” She grumbled his way.

He opened his iPad again, and Pepper turned away.

“What brings you here?” Pepper asked Phil, ignoring Tony’s silent tantrum.

“Paper work, what else?” He replied.

They all shrugged in agreement. That’s all he ever did at school.

“That reminds me,” Pepper said, pulling her phone out to shoot a text to Natasha, telling her all the official club creation forms and states of intents are in student activities’ office, should she need it. Tony saw the text and shook his head.

Pepper shook her head back at him.

Her phone lit up with the response almost right away, asking what games will be the choices available to the groups that decide to pick from. She replied, telling her that she would check student activities after school for it, and have Hill run more copies.

Natasha thanked her, then Pepper switched phone tabs to Peter Parker as Phil talked to the boys about who they thought would win the homecoming game.

Pepper -> Peter: Would you want to shadow at Bruce’s committee for the next two weeks? They need someone to make t-shirt designs, and I know you like photography and art.

Peter -> Pepper:Is this about the calls? I’m really sorry, Pepper.

Pepper felt a pang of guilt.

Pepper -> Peter: It’s not, no worries! I just wanted to let you know that there was this opportunity open.

He eventually texted back, and had accepted the position. Pepper sent off a final text to Bruce consisting of a screenshot of the conversation.

Pepper noticed a message on Tuesday after school from Tony forming the second she opened her laptop, the grey dots slow and steady and continuous. She assumed he was typing frantically, and without caution for grammar, and soon enough, she found herself to be correct.

Tony -> Pepper: Pepper I dared Steve to come over and watch a show with me because I didn’t think he would on a school night but he said yes and is driving here right now what do I do?

Pepper -> Tony: What show?

Tony -> Pepper:I didn’t get that far!

Pepper laughed to herself.

Pepper -> Tony: I’m not getting you out of this one. Also, just a reminder, Steve only sees you as a friend.

Tony didn’t say anything for five minutes, and Pepper began to worry, staring at the empty reply area. The screen self dimmed, getting ready to black out, when the grey bubbles re-appeared.

Tony -> Pepper: Fuck off. Shit he’s here help me oh god.

Pepper sighed, closing her laptop and placing it next to her. She got up, and began to walk away. There must be some grapes in the freezer, she thought. I should take care of that.

She guiltily looked back at the small, silent laptop. shaking her head she resumed the walk to the kitchen, and made it all the way to the freezer, staring down the coveted grapes, before she began to feel guilty.

Pepper groaned and headed back to her room.

Pepper -> Tony: Invite me and some other people over too. I’ll be there in three. Tell Steve you organized a group. Don’t do anything you would usually do, and there better be snacks.

She threw on her jacket. It wasn’t as if she’d had homework anyway.

****  
  


“So, we decided to watch Mythbusters.” Tony said as she walked into the large living room, Tony on one end and Steve on the other. “I’m more of a sci-fi person, and can you believe Steve has never seen it?”

“It’s not sci-fi, it’s Silicon Valley, and yes.” Pepper irritably retorted. “Who else is coming? Where are the snacks?” Pepper glared at the empty coffee table.

“Bruce, Clint, and Steve wanted Thor to come. Apparently Jane got him addicted to this? Don’t ask me how. They should be here any minute.”

Pepper raised an eyebrow. “And Phil, right?”

Tony quickly typed into his phone, then tucked it away. “And Phil.”

His phone beeped once. “And Clint is bringing Natasha because he’s her only ride from school and they’re almost here anyway. The snacks are in the kitchen.” Tony cowardly hid behind the couch. Steve was too focused on the television to notice. The doorbell rang. It was them.

Pepper observed as Steve on the far side of the center couch sitting on the edge of his seat, hands folded together in his lap, and his phone resting next to him on the armrest. He had lost interest a while back, eyes drooping, but was trying his best to be polite about it. In the middle of the same couch was Thor, who was quite the contrast, happily texting Jane nonstop about what was happening in the show. Occasionally, he would blurt out how he thought the experiment would end. Thor never guessed incorrectly the entire duration.

Phil, who was on the other side of Thor, would roll his eyes each time. He had seen all the reruns, and was less subtle than he would have liked when paying absolutely no attention. On his phone, he almost never looked up, and from what Pepper could tell from looking at the phone screens of the two people next to her, texting like the wind.

Clint, who was occupying Phil’s armrest, seemed to be doing the same.

Bruce was curled up in the recliner between the couch Steve was on and Pepper’s. He had his knees drawn up, and a phone resting in between them. He lazily watched the show, and would type methodically when his phone lit up and highlighted his entire face with the blue white glow. Sometimes he would get squinty, and place his glasses on before typing out his answer, and Tony would nudge Pepper each time, a grin on his face.

Tony was next to Pepper on the second couch. When they were five minutes into the first episode and he hadn’t said a word, she worriedly glance over to check for a pulse. She saw his phone rapidly lighting up instead, and she quietly plucked it out of his hands to see who he was texting. He snatched it back in quick succession, but angled his body so that she could see them coming in if she wanted to. He elbowed her when she didn’t angle her phone for him as well, and she gave in. Unbeknownst to her, though, It meant turning her knees to the right, which knocked them into Natasha’s legs.

Natasha’s blank face looked up from her own phone, and Pepper’s quickly adjusted her legs so they didn’t make contact with her. It meant squishing her shoulder to Tony’s, but they had never minded being close. Natasha quickly took advantage of the new space and stretched out until her foot was right next to Pepper’s knee. Pepper felt her heart speed up when she allowed herself to believe it was intentional.

Tony nuzzled himself in between Pepper’s shoulder and the back of the couch, settling into the new space situation instantly, like a cat. Pepper accepted it, thanking the world that he had begun to applying deodorant liberally and on a daily bases.

They sat side by side for nearly half an episode, sharing silent vines with each other but passing their phones back and fourth. It was comfortable as anything, and Pepper forgot about Natasha being so close to her as Tony forced her to watch an ungodly amount of pet videos.

That was until she felt the redhead shift down, mindlessly pressing her cold foot into Pepper’s knee. The strawberry blonde snapped back into the reality of the small dark mythbusting room. Within moments of focusing on the new sensation, Pepper could feel the younger girl’s body heat start to roll off her, and Pepper shifted her knee closer to Tony’s side.

Natasha shook a bit, clearly having been daydreaming, and looked at her body position. “Sorry.” She muttered, abruptly sitting upright.

Pepper missed the heat already. “No problem.”

As Natasha’s hair swayed from switching positions so quickly, Pepper noticed an intoxicating rose smell coming from it. Pepper glanced over at the girl, wondering if it was her shampoo she was smelling. She quickly realized while looking that when Natasha’s phone lit up, Pepper could read her texts without much effort.

Pepper tried her best to keep her eyes away, but the movement of the light drew her eyes every time after. Pepper focused back on her own phone, texting replies quickly and leaning left to read Tony’s texts, or view a Vine until he would click his phone off.

It was odd, how it all worked, Pepper found herself musing, how they decided as a group that if they wanted to communicate during a show that texting would be the way to go. You could have a conversation with whoever you wanted, privately even, and not worry about upsetting the person next to you, and that is how they all found their phones on fire.

Pepper wondered if there was a point to keeping the television on anymore as Tony leaned over and flashed his phone at her.

Clint-> Tony: Dare me to sit on Phil?

Tony-> Clint: :)

Pepper rolled her eyes and looked down at her own screen, pressing the new message button.

Pepper-> Natasha: Sorry you got dragged in.

Natasha-> Virginia: Not dragged. Finished hw during last period. Clint told me who was going.

Pepper stole a glance at the girl next to her, hoping to be able to read her, but she was already texting again. Pepper caught a glimpse of what she sent, as well as the quick reply.

Natasha-> Clint: Comfy?

Clint-> Natasha: Very.

She looked across the room to a very smug looking Clint was perched in a very distressed Phil’s lap.

Pepper-> Natasha: So, I’m guessing you aren’t some secret Mythbusters fan then?

Natasha-> Virginia: So far, it may come in handy if I am ever in need of sleep.

Pepper-> Natasha: I can grab some blankets?

Natasha-> Virginia: Maybe next time.

Pepper’s heart picked up a little after reading the text, then sped up even more when her phone chirp startled her.

Phil-> Pepper: Do you think Clint would fall if I shoved him?

Pepper-> Phil: :)

When Pepper looked up, she noticed Natasha smirking at her, obviously having read the text. She ende to remember to angle her phone more carefully next time. Pepper blushed just as Phil to give Clint a hard shove off his lap, and Clint met the floor with a thud. A quick “Hey!” was shrieked before he bounded up again and collapsed back down onto Phil’s lap. “Fucking pest.” Phil muttered.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Clint wagged his eyebrows in Natasha’s direction, then pulled his phone from his back pocket. He quickly checked for screen cracks, then started tapping away.

Pepper began to notice the proximity in time from which Clint put his phone down, and Natasha’s lit up. The light drew her eyes again, and she saw the home screen with the text excerpt before forcing herself to look away.

Clint-> Natasha: I think he likes me.

A few seconds later, Pepper’s own phone chirped again.

Phil-> Pepper: Do you have bug spray?

Pepper unlocked her screen to reply, but was interrupted by Natasha nudging her and pointing subtly at Steve, who had moved from his open stance, to a four-square leg cross, his hands tightly gripping his calf. He looked as though he were a million miles away.

Natasha scooted closer to Pepper until the senior girl wondered if the younger one was going to climb into her lap. Pepper shook off the though as Natasha stopped, sitting at a close, but friendly distant. Natasha stuck her phone between them so they could both read the messages appearing.

Natasha-> Steve: You okay?

Pepper watched as Steve was pulled out of his trance by the phone lighting up next to him. He squinted at it, glanced in their direction, then replied. In moments, he shifted again, and seemed even more closed off.

Steve-> Natasha: I’m fine, thank you.

Pepper looked down at Natasha, who had her eyes trained on Steve. She look like she was reading his mind, and Pepper would have given anything to have her share.

Pepper then felt a sharp pain as Tony nudged her hard in the shoulder, and she looked at him with fire in her eyes. He gestured to her phone, bright in her lap from his text.

Tony-> Pepper: Help.

Pepper furrowed her brow at Tony.

Pepper-> Tony: What?

Tony-> Pepper: I think Steve is freaked out.

A second texted rolled into the strawberry blonde.

Bruce-> Pepper: Steve is freaked out.

A third.

Natasha-> Virginia: Something’s up with Steve.

A fourth.

Phil-> Pepper: Are you picking up on Steve?

Pepper put her phone in the center of the couch so both Tony and Natasha could see what she was typing.

Pepper-> Steve: Are you okay? Everyone is texting me saying something is up. I’m inclined to agree.

Steve-> Pepper: I’m fine, thank you.

Pepper angled herself away from the two again.

Pepper-> Tony: I am going to murder you if you do not do exactly what I say.

She leaned over and whispered into his ear.

Tony took a breath and stood up from the couch. “Who wants something to drink?” More than a few eyebrows shot up at his sudden hospitality.

Bruce got over his shock first. “Water, please.”

“Got it.” Tony replied.

“Cranberry fizz,” Pepper began.

“With no ice.” Tony finished, then turned to Clint, “Milk?”

Clint looked offended. “Fuck you.” Tony waited for him to continue.

“Yes.” Clint finished, begrudgingly. Phil laughed and got an elbow in the ribs, then a Barton back on his legs.

“Water, thanks.” Phil softly requested, apparently accepting his fate as a human recliner. He relaxed back into the couch while Clint stayed sitting upright on his lap.

Thor took his turn. “Whatever you will be having, Anthony.” Pepper smiled at his easygoingness.

“Right, fine, okay.” Tony was getting irritated. Pepper assumed he had hoped for less requests, and more, “No thanks!” but today didn’t seem to want to give him an inch, and she wasn’t helping dig him out anymore. “Romanoff?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” She curtly said, and Pepper saw her as worlds away, every inch of her focused on Steve. Pepper tried to give her a concerned look, and was answered with a blank one.

“Are you alright?” Pepper whispered to her, casually bumping her shoulder to Natasha.

“Do you need any help with the drinks?” Steve asked at the same time with the earnesty and eagerness Pepper had been counting on for her plan to work.

“Now that you mention it,” Tony smiled. “Yes. Yes I do. C’mon, I’ll show you where everything is.” Tony led him off with a guiding hand on his shoulder and as they disappeared into the kitchen, everyone seemed to let out a breath they didn’t realize they were holding, except for Natasha, who retreated to the far corner of the couch, her back to the armrest and feet to Pepper before announcing to the group “I’ll text Bucky for backup.”

“I already did.” Natasha informed her, and leaned back into Pepper’s shoulder just like Tony had.  

“Oh, thank the lord!” Clint threw his arms up and almost his Phil in the face after his phone lit up. “Bucky texted me ‘If Tony added anymore extra wheels to this shindig, I’m going to beat him with the metal arm he upgraded for me.’ I knew we were pawns. I bet Steve did too.”

“I too found myself having questioned the nature of this gathering.” Thor said, finally putting his phone away after texting Jane non-stop.

Bruce put his hands together. “Well, if that’s that, I think I’m going to go now. As much as I’m here for Tony, I don’t need to support him while he’s being held up with his mouth. Which, may I say it? Gross.”

No one was able to square up with that statement, so they just let it roll past them like a bowling ball headed for the pins. Pepper’s eyes flickered nervously to the kitchen door. Out of the corner of her gaze, she saw Natasha stealing a look at her, looking away quickly when she was caught.

Pepper glanced at her with a soft smile, and Natasha broke her monotone streak with the corner of her lip just slightly edging up.

“I don’t need to support Clint right now either, but here we are.” Phil mumbled mostly into his captor’s back, and Clint grinned.

“Aw, does that mean you're letting me stay, Phil?“ He began to squirm and Natasha stood as quickly as Phil’s face turned nauseated.

“Clint, I think it’s time we go too.” She told him. Clint stopped mid-twist to look up with a pleading look. She countered with the jangling of car keys, and his eyes widened, hand flying to his belt loop, then gave her an incredulous look.

“Fine.” Clint got up. “You win. Stop stealing my keys.”

“I will when you start noticing.” She shot back, stuffing them back into her pocket.

“Thor,” Phil got up after Clint and held out a hand to help the blond up with. “I can drop you off if you don’t have a ride. You’re on my way”

“Many thanks!” Thor smiled, and the two wandered off to the front door, talking amongst themselves.

Natasha lingered for a moment, taking the keys back out and tossing Clint the keys. She watched him begin to head out. Pepper stood also, not expecting Tony to be out soon enough for waving off his guests. She stepped closer to Natasha, an arm’s length, and apologized in a quiet voice. “Sorry it put you to sleep, maybe next time Tony will let us pick out something better.” Pepper smiled, and was returned with one.

“That’s assuming there’s a next time.” Natasha pointed out. “I’m not so sure Steve will fall for that twice.”

“Then what do you think is taking them so long?” Pepper asked, cringing at the possibilities.She rethought her weak offer. “You know what? You can over to my place and we can watch something there sometime. We can make a date out of it. Well, I mean, not a date date, unless-”

“I think I’d like to make it a date.” Natasha said quietly as Clint hollered her name from down the hall. “Also,” Natasha added, “Steve turns eighteen this year, and clearly has a thing for someone else. I won’t say who, but it isn’t the kid president.” Natasha reasoned. “It’s just a lot of drinks.”

Pepper’s mind unclenched at the reasoning. “Right. Thank you. That’s very re-assuring.”

“Tasha!” Clint yelled again.

“I should go. See you Friday, Virginia.” Natasha pushed herself up on her tiptoes and placed such a fast kiss on Pepper’s lips, the taller girl wasn’t entirely sure if it had really happened.

“See you.” Pepper choked out as Natasha scampered off. She gently rubbed her tingling lips as she tried to clear the warm fuzz shorting her brain.

****  
  


As the credits rolled on the fourth episode, Steve emerged out of the kitchen in front of Tony, arms laden with drinks. He looked at Pepper and the empty seats with his wide, blue eyes standing out from his quickly spreading blush. “I’ll just... put these back then.”

Tony cared much less, and decided to put them all on the table anyway. He collapsed where Bruce was sitting before. “I poured some snacks for you if you still want them.” Tony told her.

Steve wandered back in after returning the drinks. “I should go. See you guys tomorrow?” He said sheepishly, edging down the hallway, and Pepper gave Tony a death glare until he got up to see Steve out.

“Later, Steve.” Pepper told at him as he headed out, her fingertips still lightly rubbing her lips. Tony didn’t say a word.

“He was born in a different universe.” Tony finally said after his return to the couch, absorbed in whatever had just happened between him and Steve. He laid face down, body mostly draped over Pepper’s legs, and he groaned loudly into the cushion before rolling onto his back, groaning again, and sitting up. “You have the boniest legs, I swear, it should be illegal.”

“So you can exploit it? No.” Pepper scooted farther away from Tony, overwhelmed by all the heat his body was throwing off. The last thing she needed was to be warmer. “What happened?”

Tony’s eyes widened and he grabbed her arms. “Everything! I started making your drink, thinking I could teach him how to make it, right? Just some platonic, friendship forwarding, drink making. I get out the seltzer water and syrup and these fucking maraschino cherries and what does he do? Plucks a cherry into his mouth and starts working the stem, like working it. Pepper, and I’m just standing there, kinda watching when he pulls out a perfect knot, and I’m all ‘Didn’t know there was a boy scout badge for that.’ And he went ‘You don’t know how to make cherry knots? Bucky and I do it all the time.’ as if it’s the most innocent thing ever, and I’m like, ‘Um, do I look like a boy scout?’”

“And then he asked if you wanted to learn how?” Pepper felt the second hand embarrassment creeping up her neck.

“I want to climb him like a tree, Pepper.” Tony fake cried, and Pepper gave him a sympathetic look. “All I did was panic and pour everything into the nearest rimmed container, and I swear the milk carton almost gave me a paper cut.”

“Oh, Tony,” Pepper cooed. “I’m sure it didn’t, but good try. Also, he has his eyes on someone else.”

Tony stopped fake sobbing. “Do you have a fucked up love life I can feed off of instead of my own?”

Pepper gave a snorted laugh, her thumb padding over her lips one last time. “I think I promised Natasha a meal and a movie throughout the events of this week, but that’s less messed up and more Freudian.”

Tony let out a sigh. “Like a date or friendship catalyst bribe? She kissed you too, right?” He swiped his own thumb over his lips in the same manner she just had.

“More of reciprocal gesture for the food she bought me and hanging out as make up for today.” Pepper admitted, trying to keep Tony from getting wound up over date. Somewhere between the thrill of knowing Natasha liked her, and the joy of being able to try and work an out of school relationship, the reality had set in, and it terrified her. “I’m too busy for a relationship.” She sighed, trying to convince herself. “But I like that you assume I have ulterior motives.”

“It matches your hair.” He told her offhandedly, playing with a piece of it before she decided it was time to leave. She didn’t have homework, but she did have a time constraint on the meeting the next day, and she was already running to keep up.

Right before Pepper started the engine, Tony yelled through her window, “She did kiss you, right?”

Pepper felt herself blush, and Tony smiled. “You’re not that busy, Pep. It is totally a date.”

When she got home, she listed out every reason why she should not date Natasha Romanoff, then threw it away, and went to bed.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Three days after the movie debacle, the Friday meeting had gone smoothly, Pepper and Natasha declared, walking away from the rooms they had presented in. They had even finished a little early, giving them time to leisurely walk to their next classes.

“And with that, I believe everything is now set for the committee, except for the actual carnival, which we’ll need to set up on the morning of. And probably something else I’m forgetting.” Pepper said with triumph.

“You’ll remember it eventually. And by morning, you mean three am until school starts, don’t you?” Natasha said.

Pepper shrugged. “I don’t make the rules”

Natasha shook her head. “Yes, you do. Who’s in charge of taking everything down?”

“The clubs themselves. It was in one of the clauses. I’ll remind them later.” Pepper watched the people around them scatter to their classes, and felt a sense of calm in comparison.

Natasha’s head was focused higher up, towards the kids hanging out on the second floor balconies, and they accidentally bumped shoulders from not looking forward as they walked. “Is there a map of the layout for us to refer to in setup, or is it anything goes?”

Pepper her hair pushed her hair off her left shoulder, and swept it all to the right as she suppressed the want to bump into Natasha again. She crunched the calendar in her head instead, and her on topic thoughts eventually returned. “That must be what I forgot. I’ll make the map before Friday.”

Natasha turned her head away from the upper building. “I can help with that.”

Pepper blinked at her. “Oh, no it’s fine, really.”

“I insist.” Natasha smiled and took out her phone, pulling up a calendar. “We can meet up at that Greek place downtown. I’ll bring a sketchpad. Maybe Monday at six?”

The strawberry blonde thought about all the follow up denials to avoid spending more time with Natasha. She could feel her brain tingling with emotion at the thought of getting to have a quasi-date, and Pepper’s reason knew that it meant she was a gonner. The only way out would be to cut herself off at the source. Pepper looked around, ready to give her second turn down, but realized the hallway was getting emptier and emptier. Technically it was work, right? She pulled out her phone. “That works for me. But I’m buying, since you did last time.” Somewhere in her mind, she checked off the meal portion of her debt, and in another part, cursed herself for giving in so easily when she could have held out for a real date.

“Icing on the cake.” Natasha said with a smile that melted Pepper’s inners. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah.” Pepper felt her heart rapidly beating away, and it was too late to turn back. Probably for the best, she thought. It’s just not ethical.

She barely made it through the door to her fifth period class before the bell. The jogging had been her savior, though it didn’t help her composure. Tony’s voice ring through her brain, “Like a date?” and if there was important information given in the period, Pepper didn’t hear it. Her mind was too busy with other important thoughts, like how good Natasha’s hair would feel if she ran her fingers through it or how soft her jawline would feel when kissing her.

****  
  


She ended up telling Tony about the meal set for the next day, which of course, turned into him forcing her to take him to get a cone of gelato before heading back to her place to talk more about it there. His thirst for knowledge about anything and everything unfortunately extended into gossip. She assured him that it was just a homecoming meeting with her committee, except with only one person from it, who she had a huge crush on and had kissed, and the meeting would be over dinner, at a real restaurant. And maybe he hadn’t bought it, but she had no other way of describing it except for that was what it was and what it was wasn’t a date. It wasn’t.

In Pepper’s mind, dates had thinly veiled meet up excuses, like, “I was wondering if you could tutor me at a place where there will be no room for textbooks in a subject that we both have an ‘A’ in?” Or, “I really wanted to check out this new nature hike I found but I heard it’s better to go in pairs, for wildlife reasons. Where is it? The park, or course! Would you like to join me?”

The carnival layout was a tangible reason to get together, and Natasha out of everyone had earned the privilege of collaborating on it. And Pepper owed her a meal anyway, so why not? Tony just liked drama. It was not date. No matter how much Pepper wanted it to be. It was a stay professional, stay on task, stay collected, meeting.

“Except that it is a date.” Tony told her the next day, sitting on her bed like he owned it, watching her pick out clothes to change into. “Because if it weren’t, you would just go wearing that.” He gestured to Pepper’s current outfit, holding up his near empty gelato cone, then tipping it back to collect the few remaining drops into his mouth.

Pepper looked down at her white peplum top, dark jean capris and white flats that looked hardly worn, despite having been on all day, and realized her best friend did have a point. She looked back up at him, and decided not to give him the gratification. “Don’t you dare get food on my comforter, Tony.” She chided.

“Exactly!” Tony said, putting the cone sideways on a plate she had there as a part of systematic Tony proofing, and he flopped onto his back, studying the ceiling like it were the stars. “Changing after school into a new outfit, yelling at me for no reason… Date.”

“Tony, I always yell at you, you always get food on my bed, and I always change before going out after school.”

“You never change your clothes for me!” He whined, and Pepper threw a shirt she was considering at his head. It pillowed gracefully on his face, and he made no move to remove it. “No appreciation.”

“You would go to school in your pajamas if it weren’t for me, and I even pick those out half the time for you also.”

Tony blew a puff of air at the shirt covering his face, disappointed when it didn’t blow off. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll get your paycheck in the mail, Potts. So is this a date or not?”

“It’s not.” She said more defensively than wanted, and could tell from how the fabric moved and creased after she had said it that Tony was smirking. “Keep the shirt over your face while I change.”

****  
  


She ended up dressing down with a loose top featuring an owl on it in brown and gold, faded jeans, and neutral flats. She towered over Natasha as it already was, and she had learned from Tony that there was no need to emphasize that point to anyone more than needed, with the exception of intimidation purposes.

As she stepped out of her car and into the small Greek joint that had the best garlic fries she’d ever tasted, a familiar red head was already waiting for her at a small table in the middle. Or maybe it was a normal table, but the drawing supplies and notepad alongside the plates and silverware took up so much room, it just seemed smaller. Pepper raised an eyebrow at the mess as she sat down.

“Clint went through a drawing phase a few years back.” Natasha explained, one step ahead as always. “Didn’t turn out to be his thing.”

“Then what is?” Pepper asked trying to force her eyes away from lingering on Natasha’s highlighted cheekbones.

Natasha smiled warmly. “Archery.”

Pepper smiled at the fondness in her voice, and Natasha continued. “I already ordered waters, by the way. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Thank you, and not at all.” Pepper leaned forward to examine the art supplies more carefully. “Do you want to eat first, work later, or work first?”

“Multitasking would be preferred.” She said offhandedly.

“Great.” Pepper said, relieved. Inefficiency was not something she excelled in. She took what she recognized to be a architectural pencil, and thus much more dense than the average lead, but with lighter lines. She sketched out a large “L” shaped area and divided it up into quadrants as a skeleton of where all the booths and events would be, then pulled a paper with the actual booths listed on it. She pointed to one end. “This is the entrance, so we need to put the info booth here.”

“And food should be in the back so they have to walk through all the games to get to it.” Natasha added just as the waiter came by for their orders. Pepper filled in the booths for food after ordering, and Natasha bolding in the places they had just defined with a sharpie. “Should we group water games?”

“By the water outlet, yes.” Pepper confirmed and wrote those in, Natasha boxing in after, and they were like a well oiled machine putting together a jigsaw puzzle that would have left anyone else in tears of frustration.

Somewhere between shading the green areas, and outlining the blue, Pepper shifted her feet beneath the table and pressed her left against the center leg of the table. She saw Natasha lift her eyes and look at her through her eyelashes. Pepper felt the table push back and all the blood in her body rushed to her face. She pulled her foot away, tucking both neatly crossed under her knees. “Sorry.”

Natasha didn’t shift at all as a light pink hue appeared softly on her cheeks. “Don’t worry about it.”

Pepper’s stomach filled with butterflies.

****  
  


When their food came, Natasha was sketching the obstacle course they would need to set up in the field just outside of the main “L” while Pepper was color coding the booths by type. It felt so normal, like she had worked side by side Natasha a million times before. Pepper glanced up to look at Natasha. She was focused, with a tight grip on her pencil, eyebrows pulled together ever so slightly, and lips pursed. There was a single hair resting on her face, curled in a way Pepper’s hair refused to bend, and her green eyes were even sharper against her pale skin in the musty restaurant lighting.

“Like a date.” Went through Pepper’s mind again, along with the stack of movies she knew were waiting for her at home. It was not a date, Pepper chided herself, zoning back in as her phone beeped, and she pressed the home button to check the notification.

She felt her heart beat fast and faster as she scrolled through the pictures Phil had sent her. Her face must have shown the matching increase of horror, because Natasha immediately picked up on it. “What?”

Pepper slid the phone over to Natasha.

Her eyes glided over the words, then flicked back up at Pepper. “You can drive us?”

Pepper nodded.

Natasha frantically slid the paperwork, map and pens into the bag she had brought them in, calling over their waiter for the check.

Pepper pulled her wallet from her back pocket, accepting the check and putting more than the right amount of cash into the bill, unable to calculate how much to tip in such a rush. She headed out with Natasha right behind her. The senior quickly felt in her other pocket for her phone, and realized it was empty. She turned back briefly and Natasha flashed the piece of technology in her hand at the taller girl.

“Text Tony?” Natasha asked.

Pepper shook her head against the suggestion as she unlocked the car. “Text Phil back. Tell him we will meet him there.” She ducked into the car and Natasha took shotgun, tapping away.

****  
  


“The field has been turned to toxic mud, is what you’re saying?” Phil clarified once Justin Hammer finished explaining what he had done.

“I was just thinking –Hey! If a little bit of the stuff and a sprinkle of water greens the grass up like nothing else in a few months, shift the numbers around a bit and we get green grass just in time for the carnival.” He turned to Pepper. “Honestly, I was trying to help you. You should be thanking me.”

Had Pepper been a violent person by any means, she might have beaten up the freshman on the spot, but she was not, and therefore settled for taking a deep breath and turning to Phil. “I want you to call this in to Hill and have her contact Fury.”

She turned back to Justin once Phil nodded and took out his phone. “So what do you plan on doing about this?” She asked as calmly as possible, but the bile was building in her throat, and suddenly what had seemed like a dry cut task was mocking her faster than light.

“Oh! Do something about it? Well, I just don’t think anything can be done, really. You’ll probably have to cancel the carnival, which is funny, really, if you think about it. Auxin is highly toxic. You know, I once –“

“Stop. Just, stop.” Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose and glanced at Natasha, who was clenching and unclenching her fists and glancing back to Pepper. Pepper touched her shoulder lightly and the two stepped slightly away from Justin.

“I really don’t know what to do.” Pepper admitted. “But you didn’t sign up for this, and I should have listened when Tony warned me about him, so I can take care of it. Can you keep the layout for now and I’ll give you my keys so you can stay warm in the car while I finish here, and then I can drive you home later? Or, I can get someone to give you a ride. Phil and I, we’ll talk to Hill and figure it out and I’m sure I can call in a favor and get you home soon as possible. This is just such a mess, I’m so sorry.”

Natasha opened her mouth to speak, but “—If I may interrupt.” came from behind them. Pepper’s first instinct was to turn. Natasha’s was to put the person sneaking up into a headlock.

“No.” Natasha told him, bracing herself for him trying to wedge out. “You may not.”

He chuckled, no intimidated in the least. “Edgy. I like it.” He grinned, looking at Pepper best he could, and she turned away from his gaze to check on Phil, who was in a heated conversation with whoever was on the other end of the phone.

“What I was going to say, well first actually if you could just…” Justin began again, tugging at Natasha’s arm. “After all, I’m not an animal.” Natasha rolled her eyes and released him with a small push in the direction away from Pepper and herself. He dusted himself off, though there was no dust to been seen, and continued. “Anyway. I couldn’t help but overhear you two about needing a ride and, well, I just so happen to have a friend of mine coming to pick me up. I could give you a ride, you’d love it. His car –I fixed it up myself! Cars are wild beasts and I am the tamer, if you know what I mean, and I think you do, princess. So what do you say? Want a ride with a prodigy?”

“I’ll be staying here.” Natasha told him flatly, eyes locked with Pepper’s, and Pepper gave a small nod back.

“And you’ll be staying here too.” Phil told Justin with heavy hand on the younger boy’s shoulder. “Fury and Hill are on their way.”

****  
  


“So it’s cancelled then?” Tony asked, bouncing Dummy’s ball off the ceiling as Pepper trudged through his closet in search of a clean t-shirt. “Behind the mirror.” He pointed, and she found a brown shirt with a solid red pie graph on the front. She draped it on Dummy’s arm, and Tony caught the bot’s attention with the ball. Dummy zoomed over and exchanged the shirt for his toy. Pepper turned away while Tony shrugged it on.

“Not exactly.” She grabbed her backpack, slinging it loosely over an arm.

Tony followed suit. “You are going to drag this out, aren’t you, Virginia?”

Pepper glared at him for using her full name. “Of course not. I’ve got a committee to help me.”

He let out a groan of agony before getting in the car to head to school.

****  
  


“—And that is why we need to move locations.” Pepper finished telling her committee, or at least a portion of it, the next morning. Frank had come late, and Reed had been occupied, pointing out all the errors in Victor’s homework, which he was completing while Pepper spoke.

“We should begin at once to put this right.” Thor, one of the few actually listening, sat rigidly upright in his seat, angry to his very core.

“We will do whatever we must to help.” Sif reassured her less forcefully than Thor, “Just tell us what you need.”

Frank perked up. “Let’s just find the guy who did this, and use him as target practice until he agrees to fix this. Not with real guns of course, but maybe squirt guns.”

“Filled with hydrofluoric acid? That melts bones.” Victor helpfully added. Pepper turned to Natasha, who looked equally as stressed out with their response.

“I find there would be a pleasant irony in the use of his own lawn chemicals, hypothetically speaking of course.” Reed added with a shrug and continued marking up Victor’s paper, much to Victor’s distress.

Pepper uncrossed her legs and pulled a binder with the list of which clubs volunteered. “I have a better idea, boys. Could you three call the clubs and get a confirmation that they will be able to move locations within a three mile radius of the school?”

Reed stretched one arm over to her, accepting the binder with ease though anyone else would have fallen over stretching that far. “Of course we can, we do have opposable thumbs, but will we?”

“We will be most pleased in accomplishing this for you.” Victor mocked Thor in his response, and the large blond glared briefly at him before shrugging it off, focusing his anger elsewhere.

“Right.” Pepper said flatly, unamused by his joke, then turned to Thor and Sif with a more cheery tone. “Sif, Thor, I need you two to make flyers. We’ll need them later on for posting around the school, handing out at the rally and so on. The front needs to clearly tell that we’ve changed locations, with a blank line for the address to be dropped in later, and the back with a map that we can draw in a route to the new location. If you could just arrange the layout as a skeleton for when we have more information, that would help me out a lot.”

They nodded, and Sif took out a pen to write down their tasks. Pepper nodded back, saw that the other three were fighting over who would call which clubs, decided that she didn’t have time to break it up. They would sort it out eventually anyway. She turned to Natasha instead.

“I’m going to need your help going through locations today. Do you think you could come over after school? I can drive you.”

Natasha took out her phone and opened up her calendar. Pepper could already see it was booked.

“It’s fine. I can do it myself.” Pepper told Natasha, but it sounded more like reassuring herself, and she cringed inwardly at how sad that was. It wasn’t as if it weren’t true; she could do it, but doing it with Natasha would be better. The small glimmer of hope that Natasha could clear her schedule for the strawberry blonde had leaked out in betrayed Pepper in her own voice.

Natasha was silent for a moment, then got up. “Hold on.” She went over to her old committee, tapping Matt Murdock on the shoulder and exchanging words, then came back, slowly reaching around Pepper to show her the no longer offending appointment. Pepper stilled herself because of the closeness of Natasha’s face to hers, hovering just over her shoulder. She focused her energy on not leaning into the closeness and enjoyed the feeling of the younger girl’s breath lightly dancing across the skin of her shoulder that was exposed.

“If you can pick me up at the studio around five, I could push this training with Matt forward to be right after school and then stay with you as late as you need.” Natasha said almost directly into Pepper’s ear. The strawberry blonde’s skin tingled all over, and she pushed back all thoughts of moving her head just so and kissing Natasha like her life depended on it.

Moving her arm as to avoid contact, Pepper managed to take out her phone and synchronize it with Natasha’s. “Done. Text me the address, and I’ll try to have the grunt work done before I get you,” She said, without turning her head more than a centimeter or two to Natasha’s side until after the redhead had moved away. When the bell rang, Pepper went into the bathroom, locked a stall, and let out a sigh, recounting the event. Tony would have laughed at how flustered she was. Pepper headed to first period a good five minutes late.

****  
  


As it turned out, the studio in question was that of a hole in the wall martial arts and gymnastics training center called Fogwell’s with windows wide enough to peer into from the parking lot. Pepper squinted into the dim facility, and noticed the two figures sparring on the red mats, one of them definitely Natasha, and the other, a familiar boy with a mess of orange hair.

“No way.” Pepper said in the privacy of her car, not wanting to get out until exactly six. As far as she knew, neither teens had noticed her yet, too busy tracking each other as they circled.

Matt was the first to make a move, throwing his leg up, directly to Natasha’s waiting arm. She grabbed his foot, twisting it, and he ripped away, resetting for her offensive attack. She aimed an open palmed punch to his chest to knock him off balance but he dodged back, avoiding the attack, then lunged forward in quick succession, catching Natasha with too much weight on the ball of her front foot. He kicked it out from under her and she went down ungracefully. Pepper winced. She thought it looked more like street fighting then a formal martial arts as Natasha used the momentum from her feet to thrust herself back up, take a step to Matt’s left, then fake him out by changing her direction to his right, wrap one arm around the back of his knees then place her shoulder just beneath his butt, and in one fluid motion, throw him backwards to the ground. Matt’s chest seemed to shake with laughter between gasps for air from the heavy cardio workout as he laid on the ground. Natasha herself looked very pleased and amused as well. She reached out a hand to help him up, then an arm for him to take. He let her guide him to the side where their bags lay right as the clock ticked six, and Pepper finally took out her phone to text Natasha.

Pepper -> Natasha: Impressive cool down.

She watched as Natasha checked her phone, then scanned the parking lot. Pepper gave a little wave.

Natasha -> Pepper: You’re early.

Pepper checked the time.

Pepper -> Natasha: No, you’re late.

She watched Natasha shrug at the one minute lapse before walking further into the facility.

Natasha -> Pepper: Give me ten minutes. I’ll be right out. Shower.

Pepper -> Natasha: K

Matt however, seemed to be skipping getting cleaned up and took his time getting his sunglasses and deep red cane out of his bag. He unfolded the long device, took a seat, and stayed perfectly still until Natasha reemerged. She said something to him, and after Pepper assumed he said something in return, he coolly walked out of the building waving to Natasha as he turned the corner.

“He lives really near by. Dad’s an ex-boxer, has a share on the place.” Natasha said the second she opened the car door and caught Pepper staring at the blind boy becoming smaller and smaller as he walked away. Pepper noticed the car had become flooded with the scent of warm rose as Natasha settled into the passenger seat, and Pepper realized it was the junior’s shampoo.

“Really good ears and special awareness, Matt.” Natasha explained to her. “It’s like a sixth sense. Great for sparring.”

“Wow.” Pepper said and really, what else could she say? She knew the idea with losing one sense then enhancing another, but… wow. She took another breath through her nose, absorbing the scent she had so solidly associated with the girl next to her, and focused on the fluttering in her chest from the stimulation.

Natasha waited for her to continue, and then leaned over the center console and gently kissed Pepper, her wet hair tickling the sides of Pepper’s face. “Thanks for picking me up.” She said, her face still inches away.

“My pleasure.” Pepper breathed out, raking one hand through Natasha’s hair. Natasha smiled, then leaned back in her seat, buckling up. Pepper mentally shook herself. Professional, on track, collected.

“I’ve scouted out all the areas for rent within a three mile radius of us that could accommodate the carnival already, now it’s just a matter of who will let us set camp there. We don’t exactly have the best budget. But we’ll narrow it down, and do some calls. I don’t think it will take long, especially now that you’re here.”

“No problem.” Natasha told her. “But what exactly is our budget?”

“Five hundred up front, and thirty percent of the school’s profits after.”

Natasha looked at her bag on her lap. “And how much would thirty percent be, roughly?”

Pepper made a turn. “Let’s just hope they don’t ask,” She worriedly told, turning on the radio to help ease her nerves about both the Friday carnival and time priorities.

****  
  


With each call made to a possible venue, one girl would turn to the other and shake their head, looking more and more worn out as they went. Pepper would draw a line through each option as they were turned down, and Natasha eventually took the pen from her, knowing there was only one number left. Pepper already had it in the phone, and with a glance at Natasha for support, hit dial.

The venue turned her down as well, in record time to boot. Pepper rubbed at her tired eyes, too crestfallen to care about how her mascara would stain. She dropped next to Natasha on the couch in a heap of limbs and the heat coming off of Natasha soothed her into lulling her head onto Natasha’s shoulder, lacing her fingers with the smaller girl as she sulked.

“We have to cancel.” Natasha told her quietly, nudging Pepper’s hair with her small, adorable nose when she turned her head.

“We are not cancelling.” Pepper bit her lip, and she could feel the lump growing in her throat and tears swelling in her eyes as she thought of every little terrible thing would happen if she didn’t get her job done after promising everyone she could fix it. “I will not be the one ASB officer this year that didn’t pull through.”

“Virginia, everyone knows how capable you are. Hammer screwed up. Not you.”

Pepper shook her head at Natasha. “We’re not cancelling.” She took a shaky breath and composed herself. “We are not cancelling. I’m going to text the group, and tell them that we haven’t found a venue but are looking into other options.” Pepper sat up, feeling slightly more confident as a plan began to form in her head.

Natasha’s face was serious, her eyes hard and dark, focused on Pepper, and she spoke gently, scooting just a little bit closer, but it felt like leagues from where Pepper was. “What other options? We have tonight and tomorrow, Virginia. That’s not exactly enough time for a fundraiser and redial.”

“I know, I know.” Pepper dropped her phone into her lap. “What if we reroute the parade and have the carnival in that strip of road.”

“We’ll never get police clearance to block the roads for that many hours with such little notice.”

Pepper took a breath. “Let’s reschedule it.”

“The next time school lets out early enough for clubs to set up before two o’clock is three months out. I already looked into it.” Natasha took Pepper’s phone from her lap, and held it out to her. “Cancel.”

Pepper closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A moment passed before she felt her hand entwined with Natasha’s get squeezed with gentleness. Pepper sank into the cushions, and when she opened her eyes, Natasha was looking at her with a sincerity that pierced her cluttered mind.

“This isn’t all on you.” Natasha said, and held out the phone with her free hand.

Pepper took the phone and typed out a message, hitting send, and Natasha’s phone beeped right away with the group message.

Pepper -> Leadership Committee: No venue yet. Not sure if we’ll find one

Natasha gave a small smile, and Pepper felt relieved. She rested her head on Natasha’s shoulder again, and they sat there like that as a few responses rolled in, both their phones going off.

“Do you want some tea?” Pepper asked when the final response came.

“Sure.”

She reluctantly let go of Natasha’s hand, and headed towards the kitchen. Natasha followed her in, and they sipped pomegranate white tea until Natasha’s ride came. Pepper ached with anxiety over the event despite being shoulder to shoulder with Natasha in comfort. By the time Natasha went home, Pepper’s mom had showed up and Pepper went to her room, grabbing her phone on the way up to try and calm down as much as possible.

When Pepper checked her phone one last time before slipping into bed, there were two texts:

Tony -> Pepper: We having a carnival still, Potts?

Natasha -> Pepper: See you in the morning for area decorations. Let homecoming begin. 4 am.

Pepper smiled at the last one, and decided to deal with the first one in a moment, set her alarm for four AM, and opened her laptop.

“You’re cancelling it?” Tony asked, only his hair visible from his webcam in the video chat.

Pepper took a sip of her now cold tea. “Every park or outdoor venue that is open is too expensive or isn’t large enough, and—“

“How large of a venue do you need? We’re talking same size as last year, right? With the blow up things, and the dunk tanks that never have anyone attractive, obstacle course of doom, overpriced food?” She could hear him typing violently, probably in a different tab on a thread with Bruce.

“There’s never been a dunk tank, but yes, well, originally we were thinking that size, but I’m not sure it—“

She saw the webcab bob as it was yanked down to show the majority of Tony doing a wide armed gesture and pouting face. “You only had to ask, Pep. You’ve seen my house and more importantly, my backyard, right? That didn’t slip past you all these years? You have a key.”

Pepper gave him a hard look. “You’re not kidding?”

“Cross my heart and swear to cry like the day I was born.”

She didn’t bother correcting him on the saying. “And your parents will be okay with it?”

“Of all the parties to throw while they’re off to who knows where, at least is for a good cause. I’ll shoot them an email halfway through. PR will eat it up.”

Pepper sighed. “They’ll kill you when they find out.”

Tony shrugged. “Let me stay at your house for a few days when they get back and the press goes nuts. I’ll be in the clear once they die down. Deal?”

Pepper brought up her parent’s calendars on her computer, and saw that her mom was doing double shift at ER and would be gone for the better part of after school and night the week after homecoming, as well as her dad out of state for work. “Done, but we’re too old for this, so you use the window if mine get back early.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” 


	4. Chapter 4

Area decorations felt like a hazing joke. Each class would choose a quadrant of the school to theme with their class take on the the homecoming theme and have it judged for points was something that is only fun idea in theory. The props would all be prepared ahead of time, usually in someone’s backyard for hours and hours over multiple days, then, they would transport the goods and have all the kids in the class volunteer for an awful morning beginning at four AM to set everything up by seven AM. They then had to have it judged before the bell rang at eight. Worst of it all, during the day, the decorations get trashed and trampled as kids from other classes past though the area. Luckily, ASB was allowed to be impartial to the laboring in class competitions, which meant skipping all the prep before the final day, but the committees were a different story.

Pepper had woken up painfully early on Wednesday to gather hers before the true area decoration scramble started, and if there were ever to be a real life zombie festival, she was fairly sure this was it. Her team had gathered slowly, groggily, and utterly unenthusiastic, barely grunting hellos as their eyes drooped and bodies slowched.

“Good news, as of very late last night, we have a venue.” She told the barely awake group as cheerfully as possible.

They blinked as it set in, Thor being the first to perk up. “I had the utmost faith in you, Pepper. We will update the flyers as soon as you wish.”

Sif nodded groggily.

Frank clenched his teeth then turned and slapped Victor on the arm, the sound making Pepper jump. Victor then shoved Frank back and shot Reed a look that made Reed shove him and get a hit in return. Reed recovered and cleared his throat, “You said it was cancelled.”

Pepper raised an eyebrow, then looked at Natasha, who gave her a wide eyed look back that clearly said, ‘Not me.’ She turned her attention back to the three boys. “I told you we couldn’t find a venue last night, but as of this morning we do.”

Reed gave wide eyes to Victor, slapping him squarely in the chest, and Victor then turned and shoved Frank, making the younger boy stumble. Thor tensed up, ready to intervene if needed but Frank recovered his balance well enough to shriek, “It’s Vic’s fault!” Victor shot him a death glare. “He told al the clubs and classes to cancel and confirm.”

“Don’t you dare pin it me, I simply was the voice in the message! I did as told.” Victor growled at Frank.

Reed held out an accusing finger. “I may have told Vic who to call, and given him the means to do it efficiently, but you, Frank, read the text from Pepper to me off your phone. You specifically said ‘cancelled’.”

Frank had no retort, and Pepper was fuming a the three young freshman boys, but chose to ignore her instincts to lunge for their throats. “Can you call them back? Now?” She gritted through her teeth.

The three boys pulled out their phones like they were burning a hole in their pockets. Pepper watching them carefully as they began, then pulled Natasha, Sif, and Thor aside.

Sif held out a hand warmer to Pepper subtly. Pepper raised a questioning brow. Sif clarified. “Your hands are shaking from the cold. Wouldn’t want you getting frost bite. I know I couldn’t survive without mine.” She revealed a second one in her other hand.

“Thanks.” Pepper said sweetly, accepting it and trying to ignore how her hands continued to shake after being heated. “Have to love these early mornings, right?”

Sif gave a soft laugh. “Indeed.”

Pepper took a breath and addressed Thor and Natasha in addition to Sif. “If they’re not done in a few minutes, we can go on foot and try to find the club presidents. Most people involved in the school a little are involved in the school a lot; they’ll be here.”

All three nodded their heads in agreement, and waited off to the side while the chaos of the four classes brewed around them.

****  
  


“They all picked up?” Pepper was astonished “We’re all set?”

“Not exactly.” Victor fiddled with his hands, looking down, then snapping his eyes up dramatically in a completely planned way. “The renters that we booked then cancelled will not pick our order back up.”

“And also,” Reed began, “Only half of the clubs are still in,”

“And all the major food vendors had to cancel their deliveries of food, and they don’t want to scramble the reorganization of it, so they’re out.” Frank finished, and Pepper could feel her throat ripping instincts begin acting up again.

“I’m going to go talk to Hill.” Pepper told the group, then stalked off in search of their teacher.

****  
  


As it turned out, Hill had referred her to Fury.

“’Until such time as homecoming week ends, we will continue to act as though it intends to spin on.’” Pepper paraphrased back to her committee, letting the words sink in for them. “Therefore, Thor, Sif, keep going on the flyers, you three,” Pepper pointed to Frank, Victor, and Reed, who looked much less embarrassed than Pepper felt they should be. “You guys will be finding substitutes to the obstacle courses and inflatables that are within budget and free of lead. Is that clear enough for you?”

“Yeah.” They chorused.

“Natasha, you’re with me. We’re going to find new people for booths.”

Natasha nodded, ever silent in the morning, until the others peeled off. “This is going to take a little longer than a dinner date, Virginia.”

Pepper rubbed her temples. “I know, just… give me a second to think this out.”

Natasha pulled out her phone, sent out a text, then slipped it back into her pocket. “It’s seven, by the way.”

Pepper glared at Natasha. “What?”

“It’s seven o’clock.”

Pepper breathed in sharply at the thought that it took three hours to sort out what should have been such a simple thing. “So we have basically after school today and maybe after school tomorrow to sort this out, logistics and all. And that means sending out advertising without knowing if we will be able to follow through. Let’s face it, with the skits and parade tomorrow, we’re screwed.” Anxiety crept up Pepper’s throat, and she felt her head begin to spin.

“Not if we skip.” Natasha pointed out.

Pepper looked around at the decorations being finalized, almost everyone grinning at their hard work, and it was just overwhelming how much she did not want to be there, standing out as a giant failure, as she tried to stop her oncoming headache. “We can’t skip class.”

Natasha grabbed Pepper’s hands firmly. “Virginia, you are shaking. And don’t try and pawn it off on the cold.” She dropped her hands. “Do you want this?” Natasha stared at her, and Pepper refused to break her gaze.

“Yes.”

“Well guess what? That means you are going to have to take more than one for the team. We are calling the office, telling them our daughters Natasha Romanoff and Virginia Potts are sick, and we are going to get this done, and if we can’t do it alone? Then I know that Phil has a handful of girls who can help us.” Natasha didn’t blink the entire speech, and Pepper put one foot farther back behind herself as if she had just be physically shoved.

“Okay.” She said simply, trying to breath slow and deep to regain herself as the stress began to wind down and level. She pulled out her phone alongside Natasha’s and they staggered their calls by ten minutes. By the second one, they were already on the road.

Natasha texted Tony for Pepper that she wouldn’t be able to take him home from school today as Pepper turned onto her own street. Pepper noticed that it felt odd, being home on a school day for what felt like no reason, and extra because she had someone else with her. She also noticed her mom’s car parked in her driveway. That was not going to work. “Are your parents still home?” Pepper asked, slowing the car down.

“Yes.” Natasha told her easily, and Pepper frowned. Natasha shrugged. “Hard to get out of a grave. Russia’s pretty good about building things to last and all. But my apartment is empty. Just take a u-turn and drive straight for a while.”

“Oh.” Pepper made the u-turn, not sure what to make of a dump and run reveal from someone other than Tony. “So, you live alone then?”

Natasha smiled. “Clint needed someone to help pay rent now that Barney‘s, well, Barney.” There wasn’t much to explain there. Anyone who was in the school district knew about Clint’s older brother and what went down over the summer. He wasn’t exactly subtle when getting high and trying to steal a projector from an empty elementary school for ‘movies that just don’t look the same otherwise’ then disappearing shortly after he was caught, leaving a distraught and withdrawn Clint behind. “But his committee isn’t doing a last minute overhaul, so he’ll be on campus.”

Pepper nodded, trying not to think too hard about the first part, and instead just turning where Natasha pointed to until they reached a small apartment complex in the neighborhood over.

“Third story, right next to the fire escape.” Natasha guided her, pointing in the direction. Her backpack was slumped over her right shoulder and Pepper finally made the connection with the purple stripes of it, plus how worn out it was. Natasha opened up the door just as the clock hit eight. “Come on in.”

****  
  


They worked across from each other at the small kitchen table, Natasha on Clint’s laptop and Pepper on Natasha’s. First order of business: Research what clubs did not originally volunteer and prepare to contact them later.

“Four out of the five people on this list for potential volunteers are in leadership.” Pepper noticed as she scanned through the names collected. “We can get Hill to offer them extra credit.”

Natasha gave her an incredulous look. “You know why most people take this class, right?”

“Yes.” Pepper rolled her eyes. She knew all too well.

‘Come on, Pep. It’s the ultimate blow off class. You show up for an hour twice a week and nod to commitments no one will fulfill and you get brownie points from college in return. I’m signing you up, and we’re running for office too. More brownies.’

“I know. But it’s all I can offer.” Pepper admitted.

Natasha leaned back in her chair and shrugged. “We’ll try it.” She looked bored and tired. “What’s next?”

Pepper took a moment to think, having grown too comfortable in expecting Natasha to just know what was coming, but right now any and all ideas were being synthesized in Pepper’s brain as she went. “Food.” Was the first thing that popped up, and Natasha nodded.

“I know some food trucks we could try. No profit, but no clean up or set up either.” Natasha typed out something on her laptop.

“And they can park right on the lawn, near the classes who volunteered to do food booths.” Pepper noted as Natasha stood up.

“I’m going on the couch.” She stated then headed out of the room, and Pepper thought of all the reasons why she should follow, and then realized how none of those thoughts would lead to progress in anything school related, and called back:

“I’ll be here.”

School came first.

****  
  


“We need a replacement for the inflatable structures they won’t lend us anymore.” Pepper called out to Natasha, who was still on the couch, done with the food trucks and onto the logistics of moving the carnival booths that were built up and broken down each year. Pepper had just finished reserving and renting porta-potties and trash cans at the fifth place she had called. Apparently even the non-glamorous things they needed now were in high demand. “I don’t trust the boys to do it.”

“Done.” Natasha said, getting up and heading into a small closet just outside of the kitchen, showing to Pepper through the open doorway a heaping amount of girl scout grade arrows and at least ten bows that all seemed to have been used before. “Archery course?”

“I’m starting to feel like you’ve been planning this.” Pepper scooted out of her chair. She fixated on Natasha’s lips as she smirked and shrugged.

“It may have crossed my mind last night.” Natasha said, pursing her lips ever so slightly.

Pepper wrapped her arms around her waist and leaned in close to Natasha. “Does that mean you believed we would find a venue this whole time?”

“Not originally,” Natasha leaned in as well, until Pepper could smell the rose in her hair again, even though it wasn’t wet this time, and she could feel the heat rolling off Natasha’s skin. “But I tend to think of a lot of hypothetical situations when it involves you.” Natasha slipped out of Pepper’s grip and headed into the kitchen.

Pepper blinked a couple times, rolling the sound of that sentence over in her mind a few times before following her. Her head started to swim with a mixture of adoration and curiosity. “Really?”

“Really.” Natasha leaned with her back against the counter, smiling and holding out a water bottle. “Right now, they involve lunch.”

Pepper raised an eyebrow, checking the wall clock and realizing it was almost twelve, and she wanted to punch all the people who had wasted her time on the phone when they knew they didn’t have what she had called for.

“Do you want eat while we work, or take a break?” Natasha asked.

“Let’s multitask.” Pepper told her, taking a sip. “I have plans if we finish early.”

Natasha’s smile faltered, dropping just enough to show her disappointment before making her way to her backpack. “Oh.”

“I promised a friend a movie a while back.” Pepper finished, holding in her smile when Natasha reclaimed hers along with her seat across from Pepper at the tiny table in the kitchen. They began making more calls to crafty locals as they munched their bagged lunches that were for school. Slowly as the hours ticked by, each booth was filled with face painters, balloon artists, and technology demonstrations. Some of the clubs that had declined before had texted back to Pepper saying they were in, and Natasha had a wide knowledge about people’s hobbies. She was able to coax them into showcasing it and teaching others at individual booth. Hill or Fury or both would just have to be happy with that, Pepper declared when they finished the email that listed everything scheduled. She hovered over send with her index finger on the click button. Pepper hesitated, raking her eyes over the words one more time, then hit send, and slumped back in her chair as she let out a huge puff of air. It was six o’clock, and minus an hour for when Pepper had zoned out, or focused too much on playing footsie with Natasha, or found herself scrolling Twitter, they had worked ten hours straight, and they had done it. Everything was going to work out.

Natasha looked at her, giving a nod, then turned back to Clint, who had happily seated himself with a chair dragged in from his bedroom after coming home around four o’clock to the two of them seated close enough that their shoulders brushed with any movement. He had stared, walked backwards completely out of the apartment, walked back in, then stared some more.

“Fuck off, Clint.” Natasha had told him right off the bat.

“No way.” Clint countered. Pepper looked back and forth between them as the awkward guest. “You blew off school with Pepper and didn’t invite me. I would never do to you.”

“Pepper and I are working.” Natasha had said back without even flinching, and Pepper felt her heart fill at the fact that Natasha had used her nickname.

“’Working’” Clint air quoted, then went silent, and Pepper gave him an odd look before returning to what she had been doing before. He left and came back with a chair and seated himself next to Pepper and across from Natasha. Natasha had rolled her eyes, then propped up her feet in his lap. Two hours later, they were still seated together.

“Clint!” Natasha snapped after look at him for a few moments. He jolted and began to blink violently. “Stop sleeping with your eyes open. It’s weird and we’re done.”

He kept blinking, and Pepper was stuck between fear and laughter. It was odd feeling. “Sorry.” He croaked out. “You guys are done?” He paused. “I’m starving. Do we have food?”

“We were going to hang out for a bit.” Natasha’s face was unreadable, but Clint squinted at it anyway. “Why don’t you pick up food on your way back from the range tonight?”

“But I’m not going to the range tonight.” Clint said at the same time Pepper told her, “Oh, I don’t want to impose, really, we can do the movie some other time if it’s trouble.”

Natasha looked between them. “Pepper, I would love to have you over for dinner tonight.” She gave Clint a glare. “Then find somewhere else to crash for a bit”

“Fine.” Clint took her feet off his lap. “But if Kate makes me take her shopping tomorrow for showing up in the middle of homecoming week, I’m taking you down with me. You know how serious freshman are about their first real dance.”

“I remember you taking two hours in Macy’s to choose a tie, yes.” Natasha gave him a curt smile.

He got up, rubbed his eyes, and started towards the door. “Condoms are in my top drawer, Natalia. Right next to the socks.”

Pepper blushed on Natasha’s behalf and smirked at hearing her birth name. Natasha herself grimaced.

“Having a roommate seems fun.” Pepper joked once Clint closed the door, but Natasha wasn’t very amused. “Do you have a movie in mind Natalia, or should I open up my Netflix queue?”

That got the smallest of smiles out of Natasha, who Pepper suspected was still internally seething at Clint for not taking a hint. It was pretty cute, if Pepper had to press an emotion to it. When Natasha still wasn’t fazed back in completely however, Pepper began to worry, and carefully intertwined their hands together. “Nat?”

Natasha looked at their fingers, studying it, then looked back up at Pepper. “Netflix, Virginia.” She said, the barely noticeable lines of annoyance in her forehead smoothing away to something softer and, in Pepper’s opinion, even more cute than before. It crossed her mind briefly that perhaps everything Natasha id was cute, but it quickly passed. “I’ll go grab some pillows.” Natasha told her, letting go of Pepper’s hand and getting up.

Pepper quickly found herself missing the warmth of Natasha’s hand. “Okay.” She grabbed Natasha’s hardly touched water bottle as well as her own much more empty one. After depositing them on the small table next to the couch, Pepper dropped herself down onto the couch. She instantly realized why Natasha was grabbing pillows. A park bench would have been more comfy. If Pepper was being honest with herself, she wasn’t entirely sure it even qualified as a couch. She ended up settling on the far right side of the couch, leaning with her back in the crease of the armrest and backrest, the least offensive area, and hunkering down until Natasha came back with a red comforter and black pillows.

“It gets cold when the sun goes down.” She explained, tossing Pepper a regular pillow and a small circular one. She caught them, shoving the smaller one behind her back and the other one under her head, and Natasha did about the same with her two pillows on the other edge of the couch, tossing the large comforter over the two of them as evenly as possible, then toying with the remote to set up Netflix. Pepper couldn’t help but wonder if this was a subtle invite to cuddle, but didn’t want to assume anything. So instead Pepper relaxed into the softness of the pillow and sighed gently at her own indecision to ask, glancing at Natasha then at the movie queue that was brought up. Natasha boredly flicked through it, flipping back and forth between action and comedy. “Do you want watch a TV show instead?” She asked, glancing up at Pepper. The red screen light highlighting Natasha’s cheekbones in the dim light. “We can probably get a few episodes in, depending on how long they are.”

“Sure.” Pepper watched her shift the queue back to TV, and she shifted again in the pillows, picking up on a warm, friendly scent of rose that was kicked up when she shifted.

“Do you like cooking shows?” Natasha asked, remote hovering over the search bar.

“I’ve… dabbled in them?” Pepper tested the waters.

“Alright then.” Natasha typed in a keyword then chose the first icon to show up and smiled wryly as it started, clearly knowing what to expect. Pepper pulled her legs up onto the couch and under the comforter that smelled like rose. Cutthroat Kitchen. Odd name for a cooking show, Pepper thought to herself, then it began to set in why it was named that.

The first kitchen sabotage rolled out and an ‘Oh.’ Escaped Pepper’s lips, as the camera panned towards a baking tray that would be used for cooking soup, and Natasha’s grin grew. She was facing Pepper more now, her feet propped up and parallel on the couch. “It gets better.” She reassured her, knowing how silly the opening to the show was. Pepper shifted in response and enjoyed more rose scent as she did so.

After the contestants went on their kitchen run, Pepper kept shifting, trying to find just the right spot to watch from. She didn’t want to be straight on to the tv, or have her legs out of the covers, and really, moving the smaller pillow against her back to the left saved her from a world of non-couch, but then, the covers had moved a bit too with Natasha shifting and taking them with her, so the pillow behind her head needed to be shifted also, and the tall chef and the other one, were still doing what they were doing five minutes before, so it was fine. First episode settle in, as Tony would call it.

When the first episode ended and she still was feeling shifty, it also had started to get colder. So as Natasha clicked play for the next one, Pepper made her way more to the left of the couch. That way she could tuck the comforter onto her right side and trap the heat in, and when Natasha put her feet in her lap, which were not warm at all, she traveled more to the left again, taking the pillow with her the whole way.

Halfway through the second episode she was leaned up on the left side, feet extending to the right with Natasha’s, and hands put together underneath the comforter. It was purely for warmth also, never mind that the pillow was now shared between them, supporting their backs, or that Pepper could distinctly smell the same scent in Natasha’s hair as the comforter.

Pepper relaxed into the closeness. Maybe this could work, she reasoned as she felt Natasha snuggle closer. Maybe it would be worth late nights cramming lost time in for work.

She dropped a kiss to Natasha’s lips when the redhead had turned her head towards Pepper, and the shorter girl pushed herself up into it, curving her body to the side towards Pepper.

It was intoxicating they way their lips glided together. Pepper grazed her teeth along Natasha’s lower lip and heard her sigh slightly.

Natasha sucked hard on Pepper’s top lip, and Pepper heard herself make a small gasp. She snaked her hand around Natasha’s waist and pulled her closer.

Natasha’s right hand weaved itself in Pepper’s hair. Pepper winced at how it made her ponytail pinch, and used her free hand to take the hair tie out. Her loose hair tickled her neck, and Natasha weaved her hand even further in the strands.

They paused for breath.

“Pepper, I have to tell you something.”

Pepper brushed a lock of hair out of Natasha’s face. “What?”

“I only called you Virginia to see if you would correct me.” Natasha admitted, her hand absently tracing the line of Pepper’s jaw. Pepper leaned into the touch.

Natasha leaned forwards to kiss her again. It was slow and lazy, and Pepper melted into her lips.

“Also,” Natasha pulled away. “I know we talked about age differences earlier and I just wanted you to know,”

“Oh god, you’re really a sophomore.” Pepper blinked in shock.

“No! No.” Natasha assured her. “I transferred here from Russia when I was nine. I was held back a year to perfect my English. I’m supposed to be a be a senior.”

Pepper wrapped the info around her mind. “When’s your birthday?”

“August.”

“Oh.”

“Oh.” Natasha mimicked.

Pepper giggled and pulled the covers up more but shivered when Natasha’s hand trailed down her side until it rested on her hip and pulled her tight on top of her.

“Where were we, then?” Natasha asked.

Pepper went to kiss Nat’s neck, then felt a pang of guilt and worry. “Wait.”

Natasha hesitated, pulling away just a little.

“This isn’t because I’m ASB or anything. This has nothing to do with any of that. Nothing will happen to you if you don’t want this.” Pepper felt a weight off of her chest as she let the words flow out.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “You do remember the whole blow off class thing, right?”

Pepper rested her elbows on either side of Nat. “I have to check.”

Natasha laughed and began to tug Pepper’s shirt off.

 


	5. Chapter 5

“Maybe it turned into a little bit of a date.” Pepper lied to Tony early the next morning for a ‘Debrief about what Clint texted me.’

“I was told there was snuggling while things were being killed in the background.” Tony sneered when some coffee dripped down the side of his cup and burnt his hand. “I couldn’t imagine a date involving Natasha and you going any other way.”

Pepper looked at him, shaking her head slightly. “Your imagination is terrible. What did Clint even say?”

“That he got home, you two were snuggling unashamedly, stole half his pizza, then went back to watching a cooking show on opposite sides of the couch while he was in the room, but he had to sit on the ground even then because Natasha locked her ankle around yours in the middle of the couch and then glared at him.” Tony took another sip, and winced as his tongue burned. Crinkling his nose at the cup, he set it down and pointed at Pepper. “Also, your lips were swollen and Natasha’s shirt was inside out.”

“We may have made out, but the shirt was a lie, and the things being killed were lobsters.” Pepper admitted, grabbing a mug. After all, it was her shirt that was inside out, not Natasha’s. She began lazily spinning a rack of Keurig packs. “Also I was on Natasha’s side at first because I was right by the cold window otherwise.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “It was cold.”

“And then Clint’s ass warmed the place up enough to move back to position one, or was it the pizza?” He picked up his cup and sloshed it in her direction.

Pepper found a mango black tea packet and pointed her empty cup in Tony’s direction. “Yes, Tony. Clint’s ass.”

Tony looked like he weighed something in his mind as she was speaking, but downed half his burning cup in one gulp to avoid talking when she galred at him. His eyes watered from the pain or taking the heated liquid in. “You learn something new every day.” He croaked out after painfully swallowing, quickly setting up the Keurig for another cup before Pepper could get hers. Pepper rolled her eyes and huffed quietly before Tony began talking again. “So are you guys going to ‘hang out and work on homecoming’ again?”

Pepper turned away to prepare her mug for more traditional tea methods with hot water, smiling softly as the warmth spread through her hands like it spread through her shoulders when Natasha had wrapped an arm around them, then admitted with a small, smug smile. “I can’t stop halfway through a season.” She took a sip, enjoying the sweetness in the tea, then paused. “You got my email about the carnival, right? We finalized all the booths and events.”

“Yeah, I got it, whatever, when are you going on another date? Did you use condoms?” Tony waved her off.

“One, we did not have sex. Two, we were going to hang out tonight after doing some carnival finalization, but there’s class skits until god knows when, and then we have to be here at four in the morning to help set up for the carnival anyway, so we'll just wing the rest“

“Four! In the morning?” Some coffee splashed out of Tony’s mouth as he choked on it, and Pepper didn’t bother to hand him the napkins that sat next to her. “You owe me, Potts, so much.”

Pepper waved him off just like he had done. “And then we have to skip the parade to do final carnival prep after school, so don’t be surprised if you lack a ride, and then there’s the game after the carnival. Oh, and the dance Saturday. I bought you your ticket—“

“The dance? You’re making me go to the homecoming dance! Pepper,” He whined.

“You’re head of the dance committee, Tony. Why did you think you weren’t going? You organized it.” Pepper put her hand on her side, staring at her best friend in disbelief.

“We’re already elected, Peps. And we’re seniors. We don’t need to smooze anymore.” Pepper let it set in how true that was. It also made her feel a little guilty, because she knew how much Tony didn’t like large gatherings. Dragging Tony to them was like dragging a cat to water.

“We’re the face of the school.” Pepper said quietly. “We have to show spirit even if it’s our last year. That just what you do.”

“So let’s show up an hour late when it’s all swinging, make sure we’re seen and talk to some people who will have our backs that we were there, and get out of there in thirty minutes. I’ll buy you a dress if you agree, you know I will.” Tony swung his coffee around and bumped Pepper’s arm with his shoulder supportively.

Pepper shook her head. “I have mine from last year, Tony.”

“Great.” He told her. “Text me the size and brand, and I’ll have a new one that’s sure to fit here by tomorrow. Unless you’ve gotten taller, then I will also have a tailor ready because I don’t have a ladder to measure you on. Are you thinking red this year? Because I’m thinking red.”

“Says the man who didn’t want to be there ten seconds ago.” She mumbled and sipped her tea. Tony just smiled softly into his mug. “And we are going to the rally tonight, as well.”

****  
  


At the rally, Pepper scanned the junior's bleachers section for Natasha three times before giving up. Disappointed, she followed Tony to a middle row in the senior section.

Steve and Bucky were already there, decked out in black and silver, the school colors. At their feet was a spirit sign for the class, ready to be waved, and it was clear that Steve had spent quite a chunk of time scripting each letter. Bucky had altered his class shirt, sporting sleeveless despite the cool night. Steve motioned for Pepper and tony to sit with them.

Pepper didn't even need to ask Tony what order he wanted to sit in. She let him enter the row first, next to his big blonde crush. She also didn't need to mention to Tony how Steve moved closer to his best friend when Tony sat down. He caught it just fine on his own.

Getting situated, Pepper noticed that directly above her were Carol Danvers and Jessica Drew from Phil’s committee. She gave them a smile, and they smiled back, Jessica tossing up a peace sign ironically. Thor, at the top of the bleachers with the rest of the football team, also caught Pepper's eye. He waved happily at her, to which she waved back, and then because her hand was already up and they were looking at her, she waved to Betty Ross, who was in between Bruce and Janet Van Dyne in the far corner of the senior section.

People continued to trickle into the gym as the clock ticked on and on. Pepper thought about texting Natasha. She took out her phone, checked for any messages, though about typing in her password to send one, and put it away. A minute later, she did the same thing. And the minute after that. The fourth time, Tony took her phone away.

"You're making me nervous."

Pepper tried to snatch it back. "I'm not making you nervous. You have nothing to be nervous about."

"I can feel the nerves coming from you." Tony scolded her. "Cut it out."

Pepper reached out for it again, and he yanked the device farther from her. "Are you sure you aren't sensing your own nerves, Tony?"

"According you, I have nothing to be nervous about, Virginia."

Pepper glared at her best friend. "If you don't give me my phone back, I will get revenge. You should be very nervous."

Tony put her phone in his back pocket. "Bluff."

The strawberry blonde groaned.

"You will thank me later."

A shock of red hair finally streamed in next to three other familiar faces ten minutes before the rally officially began. Pepper carefully observed Clint bounce around Natasha, trying to talk to Darcy, who was on the other side of the redhead, and in conversation with Jane. Natasha looked blank faced, annoyed and ready to kill. It was hard to tell if Clint played a part in that, and with a lack of a phone, Pepper had no way of knowing.

Pepper gave a little wave to them as they drew closer and Jane nodded back, touching Darcy’s shoulder to point at Pepper. She knocked her head back in the universal signal for ‘Sup?’ then said something to Natasha. She looked towards the senior bleachers, and scanned for a moment. Pepper felt it in her gut when Natasha's eyes settled on her. She gave a little wave to the junior. A hint of a smile played out on the juniors’s lips at the wave, but then Darcy hooked her elbow with Natasha’s to drag her off to the junior’s area, and the smile died on contact.

Pepper was too busy watching the juniors find seats to notice those that had split off towards the seniors. Jane told Pepper to scoot down as much as possible, and Clint climbed over everyones’ legs to get on the far side of Bucky. Pepper felt like her leg was going to merge into one with Tony’s as they were squished together from both sides, and even then, Jane still had only half of herself technically on the bench.

Natasha seemed to be in the same situation, Pepper noticed, as she observed her being squished between Darcy and Matt Murdock. She looked about as excited as someone being forced to watch paint dry, but her black and silver facepaint smeared under her eyes and spirit shirt told a different story.

Foggy was leaned over Matt and Natasha, telling Darcy something that must have been really funny for her to be shaking like she was. Matt shifted his cane out of Foggy’s face with one hand and adjusted his sunglasses with the other, then leaned and whispered something to Natasha. Pepper tried to focus in on her reaction, but Foggy was covering her facial expression.

Jane asked something, and Pepper mentally shook herself. “What?”

“Do you know what our skit is about?” Jane asked. Pepper turned her head towards Jane to avoid zoning again, and heard a faint ‘ugh’, which she could only assume was Tony getting hit in the face with her ponytail.

“Not a clue. I don’t even know what our float looks like, to be honest.” She watched as Jane shifted on the bench, trying desperately to get comfortable, and her shoes squeaked as they skidded across the wood. “Nice shoes, by the way.” Pepper pointed at the tips of Jane’s old converse which had been sharpied with their class’ year.

“Thanks.” Jane smiled, shifting again, and Pepper looked to see if there was any possible room at all for their row to move down. There wasn’t, so she just pushed instead, sending Tony further into Steve and him further into Bucky. Jane quickly occupied the inch that had been made available. Pepper noticed that Tony was coming out of a blush, the blood slowly draining as he squinted in embarrassment straight ahead.

Jane spoke up again once the row settled. “Well, the floats look…” She searched for the word. “Interesting. Better than the charred ones, anyway.”

Pepper let out a strangled laugh. “I believe you.”

“I heard Hammer sabotaged you too.” Jane told her with nervous laughter to hide the anger in her tone.

“Something like that.” Pepper sighed. “But we sorted it out. Did Thor show you the new layout?” She asked, as the lights started to dim, and the masses began to quiet.

“Sif, actually.” Jane said quietly with just a hint of a blush at Thor’s name, and Pepper felt a moment of doubt. They were a couple, right? Pepper shook it out of her mind. It really didn’t matter, relationship statuses. As long as they knew where they stood.

Jane dropped to a whisper as the freshman officers began to walk onto the presentation area of the floor, ready to introduce their skit. “It’s a good back up plan.” She said, but Pepper barely heard it as the skit began.

****  
  


Pepper felt a bony elbow jab her in the chest, and yelped.

“Is it over? I can’t tell.” Tony squinted at the freshman scrambling around the gym floor.

“You just elbowed me in the boob!” Pepper hissed at him.

“I was aiming for your shoulder.” Tony shrugged. “Not my fault.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t hear anything. I have no idea if it’s over. They look like they are leaving.”

Tony crossed his legs. “You know, if someone hadn’t ruined my audio system…”

“It also would have been easier to hear if you didn’t comment the entire time on how you couldn’t hear because of your ruined audio system, Tony”

“I disagree.”

Jane glanced at Pepper with a look that questioned why they were sitting there even when they knew the rest of the evening would go the same way, but Pepper had shook her head with a smile and shrugged. By senior year, no matter how absurd the rallies and fundraisers and sports games seemed, they enjoyed it.

Phil called it Spirit Stockholm. Pepper called it dedication. Either way, as the sophomores went nuts in the stands, their flags and handheld confetti cannons going off, ready to begin their skit that no one would hear, she smiled with every other senior.

She then looked at Natasha, blank faced in the junior stand as the sophomore skit went on, and the reality of it being her last homecoming rally hit her much harder than the moment before when it set in that she wouldn’t belong at SHIELD very soon. Pepper tilted her chin up and blinked a few times more to make sure her eyes didn’t start to water.

“Tears of wistfulness for this great school?” Tony poked her shoulder, and Pepper let out a small laugh at the question and the fact that he knew her not-crying face that well.

“Tears of joy. I hate fighting with the councillors for classes.” She told him, but kept monitoring her breathing and blinking like her life depended on it.

She scanned the crowds instead of watching the sophomore closing below, and after watching a senior pick his nose and multiple junior tap on their phones, her eyes settled on Natasha. She was watching with skit with no interest on her face, next to Darcy, who in contrast was enthusiastic as ever. Foggy was one of the people on their phones, and Matt was listening with his head up and facing forward with his dark shades on. His orange hair clashed with Natasha’s pulled back red, and Pepper had to hold in her laugh when she realized that two of the few natural redheads who were friends, were now friends with a strawberry blond. They should start a club, really. Pepper could be president for once, she thought.

As the sophomores left the floor, Foggy and Matt stood up. Foggy offered his arm to Matt, and he took it with practiced ease. They walked to the isle to climb down for the officer introduction to the junior’s skit and Natasha held onto Matt’s cane for him. The deep red of it looked good against her skin, and the dark tones brought out the lightness in her green eyes. Pepper began to imagine Natasha in that deep shade of lipstick, and smiled as she pictured how the shapes her lips would make as she spoke would be emphasized by it. She starting to drift into thinking of how the warmth in the color would be like the warmth of her lips would be against Pepper’s until suddenly she had to sit up straight and tall to avoid shivering. Tony noticed and quirked an eyebrow. She shrugged and forced her mind back to the skits.

Foggy’s intro was clearly scripted, but strong. Matt adding a quick unscripted quip to kick off the skit was a nice touch too, but what Pepper was really focused on was still Natasha, and how the lines of her cheeks made her blank face look intimidating, and why had she not noticed that before? And why did it entrance Pepper even more now that she noticed? Foggy and Matt shuffled back down the aisle, and Natasha gave them a small glance, shifting the cane back to Matt as soon as he sat down. She leaned in to whisper something in his ear. He smiled wickedly, his cheeks pushing up his red tinted sunglasses. Even from a distance, Pepper could see the satisfaction on Natasha’s face at whatever she had whispered, and she felt curiosity overwhelm her.

Pepper considered pulling out her phone for a quick text to her girlfriend- Was she her girlfriend?- but instead watched as Natasha was poked by Darcy. She nodded once, red hair bobbing slightly, and then she turned to Matt and whispered something else, which then got passed to Foggy. She also saw as Darcy pulled out her phone, and typed something. And how Bucky pulled out his shortly after. He discreetly showed the glowing screen to Steve, who nodded his head, then passed the device to Clint, who passed it to Phil who had silently showed up after the rally had started and sat directly below the archer.

The phone was beginning to be passed back towards Pepper and Tony, when Jane pulled out her’s. “Hey, Darcy wants to know if you’re carpooling to frozen yogurt after this or going alone? She said it’s a class fundraiser, and she’s treasurer, and she refuses to have it be lame with no one there.”

Pepper’s face scrunched up in thought for a little bit as she went over her schedule. “I didn’t realize I was going to frozen yogurt before now. I’ll ask Tony?”

Jane told her to RSVP within the next two minutes before twisting around to get Carol and Jess to go as well.

“Tony’s in.” Tony said before Pepper even asked and she raised an eyebrow at the third person. The junior skit finished, and the senior officers walked down for their part.

“Is everything okay with you?” Pepper whispered to Tony as Jane spoke on the floor.

“Peachy.” Tony replied. “I love frozen yogurt.”

Pepper focused on his eyes. “If you think you are going to pull drama out of thin air, I swear…”

“I’m fifteen, Pepper. And graduating high school.” He turned towards her, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward. “I’ll turn eighteen at the end of our junior year at MIT. The end.”

“We’ll get you a fake ID, it’s not a big deal. And we haven’t been accepted to MIT yet.” Pepper tried to be supportive.

“We’re going to MIT. I already have the sweats for you. We’re going.” Tony started to increase in volume, and PEpper made a quiet shushing.

“So, what, you want to be older, stay in high school longer?”

“Hell no!” Tony hissed. “It was just a stray thought. Ignore me. Jane’s coming back.”

Pepper nudged him hard with her shoulder to let him know the conversation was not over, then turned to watch Jane ask Peggy about yogurt on her way back up from talking, along with T’challa.

Pepper saw them nod in agreement to come, even if it was in support of the juniors, who they were supposed to be rivaling with that week, because their love of frozen yogurt was larger than their spirit for class rivalry.

****  
  


Apparently everyone felt that way as well, because it seemed like the whole school was at the tiny yogurt shop after the rally. The line stretched around the block once, filled almost exclusively with teenagers. Pepper hesitated turning into the clearly full parking lot, then decided: “Nope.” She said, plain and simple, putting her left turn signal on for a U-turn.

“Oh, come on, Pep! Have some fun. It’s not like you have to wake up at four am tomorrow and slave over a carnival.” Tony’s head stayed focused on the line as Pepper turned the car around and ignored his attempts at persuasion humor. “Say, is that Natasha?” He continued. “I think she’s laughing at something Carol said. Or maybe Jess? I dunno, it’s a big group of really attractive, funny people.” Pepper’s knuckles were going white on the steering wheel trying not to laugh, or feel any spark of jealousy.

“Tony,” She started.

“’Tony.’” He mocked, grinning. “’So help me I will stop this car and make you walk’?”

Pepper groaned. “Fine. But we’re leaving in an hour, Tony. Ten PM. No matter what.” She made another u-turn and turned into the parking lot across the street. “One hour.”

“This is why you’re my favorite.” Tony sing-songed, getting out of the car once they parked and jaywalking across the street with Pepper following suit. He high-fived Darcy, then made a Beeline for Bruce, who looked like he wanted to sink into the sidewalk. Bucky, Peggy, and Steve were debating flavors and toppings in the back of their group’s not-so-small section of the line, with Carol and Jess behind them rolling eyes. Clint was in the front debating with Kate and her main group of friends. He looked like he was losing.

Jane was talking with Matt and Foggy about AP physics pretty loudly, and Darcy was teaming up with Thor to show Sif something on her phone. Pepper zoned in on Phil, who was standing quietly next to Natasha, not looking like he wanted to sink into the sidewalk like Bruce, but maybe blend into the wall. Natasha was just as blank faced as she was walking into the rally.

“Quite the party.” Pepper joked, to get Phil and Natasha’s attention as she walked up to the pair.

“At this rate you’d think the sprinkles in there must be made of pot.” Phil quipped, a shy smile tugging at his lips.

Pepper laughed some herself, and relished in the fact that Natasha looked much less ready to commit murder than before. She took a moment to glance further around the line. “How many people do you think are here?” Pepper asked.

Phil shrugged and Natasha didn’t answer either. There were more people than any other fundraiser Pepper had been to, that was for sure. She filed away Darcy’s idea and tactics for later use.

A step closer to Natasha and a phone check later, Phil started talking again. “How did the carnival damage control go?”

“About as well as your float damage control.” Natasha snorted, and Phil made a face in understanding.

“Insane, but done?”

Pepper shrugged. “More tedious than insane, but definitely done.”

Natasha nodded. “That’s true.”

There was another pause.

“Do either of you even like frozen yogurt?” Pepper asked.

“Not much of a sweets person.” Phil told her. “You?”

Pepper shrugged again. ”Honestly, I’d rather get gelato.”

“Did I hear gelato?” Bucky chimed in, ripping away from Steve and Peggy’s heated argument. “Is that on the table now?”

Pepper cringed, knowing that once Bucky said it,

Steve heard too. “I thought this was frozen yogurt?” Steve’s earnest blue eyes stared up at Pepper, and it was like a little kid asking about a toy.

“It is?” Pepper tried, decidedly not upset when his face dropped a little. Bucky went as far as to looked crushed.

Peggy put a hand on both the boys’ shoulders. “Where did you two think you were?”

Bucky shook his head. “We heard gelato was on the table now.”

“Gelato’s on the table?” Clint chimed in. “Sweet. Hey Thor, you like gelato, right?”

Pepper groaned as Thor boomed, “Indeed.” Jane quirked an eyebrow, and yeah, Pepper thought, they were definitely an item.

Sif looked surprised as well. “Are we carpooling to gelato now?”

“We’re getting gelato?” Tony’s face lit up, and he grabbed Bruce’s arm. “You’re trying the whiskey flavor, Bruce-man. You haven’t lived until you’ve had whiskey flavor.”

“Gelato?” Darcy finally said. “Not to be the wet blanket, but school fundraiser, guys. Me treasurer?” She drew out the words ‘school fundraiser’ and ‘treasurer’ as the group stared at her. She paused, her face blank, then broke into a smile. “Unless you guys all want to just chip in two dollars for the class which is more than the percentage we would get with a purchase anyway and we can get gelato instead of flavored sludge.”

Pepper looked around as everyone considered it, then met eyes with Phil, who looked haunted from witnessing what he would later describe as “Hivemind mentality!” But before anyone made a solid decision, Tony whispered something in Darcy’s ear, she squeed, and suddenly the two dollar fee was waived.

Pepper weaved her way through the group as they made their ways to the car, finally finding Tony who was telling Bruce about the difference between rum flavored gelato and whiskey. “Did you pay for everyone?” She asked curtly.

“Of course not. I told her to take it from the ASB account.” Tony waved her off, and both she and Bruce gaped like fish. Tony laughed at them. “Yes. I paid it. I was going to just pay for cheapskate here,” He poked Bruce in the chest. “but apparently that isn’t fair. You should be proud. I was humble about it this time, Pep. Didn’t even announce it.”

“I didn’t mean you have to pay for all of us, Tony. I meant let me pay for myself.” Bruce quietly said, just loud enough for the three of them. Tony swatted his arm, and Pepper shook her head at how Tony showed he cared through buying and providing things. And on top of that, it was getting late. Later than Pepper wanted. “Do either of you need a ride?” Bruce asked, at a normal volume now, pulling Pepper out of her thoughts.

“Pep’s kind of my shoufer. See you there?” Tony asked, as if Bruce might not show up.

“Yeah.” He got in the car.

****  
  


“So are we going to talk about it?” Pepper asked Tony.

“It was just a moment, Pepper.” Tony pulled his seatbelt on. “What kind of gelato are you getting?”

“Tony, you can talk to me if you are feeling anxious.”

“I’m always anxious, Pepper. It was just a moment. You had one too. I am fine. You are fine. What kind are you getting?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

****  
  


When they arrived, Pepper hurried across the street with Tony on her heels, babbling about the differences between ice cream and gelato and frozen yogurt the entire way there. There were fifteen minutes left of the hour.

Parking was easy; anyone who would be getting dessert this late was at the frozen yogurt shop. The seven cars smoothly lined up in a neat row.

As Pepper walked in , she noticed that Darcy and Thor had their noses nearly pressed to the glass counter much to Jane’s amusement, and Steve was tasting multiple flavors with Bucky and getting brain freezes, much to Peggy’s amusement. Tony had put an arm around Bruce and dragged him in the middle to point at the flavors listed above them with wonder in his eyes, and Sif and Phil were at a booth table against the wall with nothing in front of them and talking.

Pepper cooly scanned the room further to see that Clint was at a table in the far back, reading the menu hanging up front with Natasha sitting next to him, reading from a paper menu in her hands.

There was also an old couple at a small table against the window, staring at all of them like they were a double-feature on a Friday night.

“Pepper?” Tony yelled at her from where he was standing with Bruce, releasing the older teen’s shoulders to beckon her closer. “Pepper!” His voice cracked.

“What?” She barked, then took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair.

“What’s the one flavor? The one you really liked but only in the fall and winter on weekdays?”

“Masala chai with almond flakes?” Pepper said off the top of her head.

“That one!” He turned to Bruce and said deeply. “Masala chai.”

Bruce gave Pepper a trapped animal look. “You know I’ve been here before, right, Tony?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Tony shook his head. “Doesn’t count. Pepper?”

“Doesn’t count.” She echoed with a shrug to please Tony. “Sorry, Bruce. Are you guys ready to go order?”

“Nope. Not even close.” Tony told her. Bruce groaned as Tony continued, “You think this is a game?” Tony scowled at him. “This is a lifestyle!”

Pepper chose that moment to duck out and get in line. Manic, borderline crazy Tony was not her forte at the moment. She glanced up at the menu briefly, only looking at the colors. She’d been dragged there enough to know what she felt like, and ordering went quickly, paying even faster because

“You’ve already been paid for.” The cashier told her when she walked up, and Tony waved. She smiled back, then glanced around the room again for a place to sit. Phil and Sif were still without food in the booth, but were surrounded by Darcy, Clint, Thor, and Jane. Steve and Bucky were seated where the old couple used to be, and Natasha was sitting in a booth across from Peggy. Pepper went there, and they both looked up.

“Well, it seems you’re no longer going to be sitting here alone.” Peggy smiled politely. “I was just warming your seat. Thor’s been needing my assistance with choosing the best flavor.” She scooted out to join the other booth. Pepper took her place, noticing the lack of gelato in front of the redhead.

“You’re not getting anything?” Pepper quirked an eyebrow, rather focusing on that than questioning about Peggy.

“Never had it before.” Natasha shrugged, a hint of her personality glinting under her blank face now that they were almost alone. “Didn’t want to get Tony’d.”

Pepper snorted at the idea of Tony wrapping an arm around Natasha and showing her the ropes of Italian dessert. “I can tell him that I’ve got you covered, if it means you get to partake in one of the weirdest nights ever.” She said.

Natasha let out a small huff that may have been laughter. “You’re on.”

****  
  


“Rose?” Pepper crinkled her nose as Natasha asked to taste the flavor. “I should have guessed that.” She mumbled under her breath.

“What?” She asked Pepper. “And thank you.” She said as she accepted the tiny green spoon with a dollop of pink on it from the guy behind the counter.

“It’s gross unless you eat it with-hold on” Pepper turned to the man behind the counter and asked for another sample, and turned back to Natasha once he handed it to her with a murmured thanks. “Here. Mix it with pistachio.”

Natasha raised a brow, mashed the most of the two together, and inserted the mix in her mouth, leaving a small speck of lone rose on her spoon. Her brow stayed raised, but she nodded her head, then tried the rose alone. Her eyebrow dropped.

“See?” Pepper gave her a knowing smile. “And then, if you get green tea, lemon zest, and honey comb, you can mix all five in different ways to minimize the grossness of rose.”

Natasha made an incredulous face, looking back up at the menu. “And here I thought I wasn’t going to get Tony’d.”

Pepper opened her mouth in shock at the accusation and nudged Natasha with her shoulder. “This is not Tonying.”

“Are you sure?” Natasha said, looking at Pepper squarely.

“This is not Tonying.” Pepper repeated, and ignored her urge to put an arm around Natasha in front of everyone just to prove the difference.

“Okay.” Natasha easily said, then ordered what Pepper had just described, watching as the man made five perfect little wedges in the mint green pentagonal plastic cup. Natasha took it off the counter when he was done, and they walked up to the register. Pepper smiled with pride that she had successfully coached someone through gelato, then pulled her card out of her purse when they got to the register. Natasha glanced at her questioningly, but Pepper waved her off. “First time freebie.” She explained.

****  
  


“What exactly did you get?” Natasha asked, looking at Peppers slightly melted food when they returned to the table.

Pepper poked around in it. “Drink theme. Green tea, Masala chai, pomegranate white tea, Baileys, whiskey, and beer flavor.”

Natasha’s eyes narrowed at the alcohol flavored portion, and Pepper winced. “Don’t worry about tomorrow so much.” Natasha told her, then after a moment, took a swipe of Pepper’s food, catching a bit of each flavor on the hard plastic of her spoon.

“Hey!” Pepper defended her bowl, and Natasha shoved her own forward as a peace offering. Pepper rolled her eyes, then took a spoonful anyway, enjoying the smoothness of the flavors blending in her mouth as she watched Natasha enjoy the flavors of hers. Natasha’s face had lightened, and it was hard to even imagine the hard lines of her scowl at the rally in the moment. Pepper then realized she had put on lipstick since then, and even though her red lipstick stained the spoon a little, Natasha’s lips still looked perfect. Pepper hooked their feet under the small table, the urge to flirt overwhelming as she was captivated by the red.

“I’m never eating frozen yogurt again.” Natasha moaned into her empty spoon, then took a generous spoonful of her own gelato now that Pepper had passed it back.

“Glad to hear it.” Pepper said, gazing at her from across the table and replaying the moan in her head which pushed the stress of tomorrow far back into her mind. She was calm with Natasha in front of her, looking pleased and satisfied, her ankle nice and warm and welcoming, with the buzz of her friends all around her. She took a spoonful of her own food into her mouth and let it melt a little before swallowing. The tea flavors tasted like comfort and the corner of her mouth kicked up just a little when she wondered if Natasha would taste like comfort tonight too.

Pepper looked up again, mouth still too full to talk, as Natasha took another bite while looking off to the side at Clint, who was most likely bugging Phil. Pepper noticed Natasha’s lipstick was still perfect.

“What lipstick do you use?” Pepper found herself saying, continuing to look at Natasha’s lips in bewilderment at how perfect it stayed on, even while eating.

“Non-smear.” Natasha offered, looking down at her spoon then back at Pepper.

Pepper felt a slight blush come up during the pause that followed. “Huh.” She finished lamely, still looking at the younger girl’s lips.

Natasha’s eyes flicker down to Pepper’s for a moment. “But I’m thinking I should put it to the test before buying a new tube.” She took another bite and Pepper shoved a spoonful in her mouth as well to buy time, weighing her options.

Slowly, hesitantly, she replied, “I’ve been thinking I should test mine, too.”

“You have it on you?” Natasha nonchalantly questioned, but Pepper saw the smile on her face.

Pepper thought for a moment. “It’s in the car.”

****  
  


“You lips still look great.” Pepper said, pulling away and taking in the chill night air as she leaned against the side of her car. Her lips buzzed with a feeling of warmth and moderate soreness that matched the feeling low in her stomach.

Natasha bend down to check her makeup in the side mirror, smiling. “I’ll text you the brand.” She flopped against the car, parallel to Pepper. “Your’s is good too, by the way.”

“Thanks. How anti-climactic.” Pepper mused, imaginary scenarios of walking back in, face covered in red stain, floating through her mind. She took Natasha’s hand and dropped her head to the side, resting it on top of the smaller girl’s, nudging her nose into the pulled back red hair.

Natasha snuggled into Pepper’s side. “Are you going to the dance?”

Pepper looked down at her, admiring her beautiful eyelashes, and the curve of her perfect button nose. She thought about bending down and kissing it lightly on the tip. “Just for a bit.” She gave in and pecked Natasha’s nose. It scrunched up immediately. “Unless--”

“-- I didn’t buy a ticket.” Natasha quickly slipped in. Pepper’s heart sank; the morning had been the last time for buying. “Clint was supposed to buy mine, but he had told Kate to get his and forgot to tell her to buy mine too, and he forgot to tell me that he forgot to tell her, then forgot about the ticket altogether. He was dropped on his head as a child.” She sarcastically added.

“Well, what are you doing after the dance? Or Sunday?” Pepper followed up, eager to make up for the mishap.

“Nothing.”

“Perfect.” Pepper told her, then craned her neck to kiss her again.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Alarms going to off at three in the morning should be illegal was Pepper’s first thought the next day, dragging herself out of bed and hugging herself tightly to try and contain as much warmth as possible. It didn’t work, and she shivered her way to the shower, grabbing her towel off the rack and wrapping it around her shoulders as the water heated up.

She groped groggily around in the shower for her shampoo –strawberry scented, an ironic gag gift from Tony—and scrubbed down quickly, reviewing in her head the delegation plans for carnival set up in the morning she and Natasha had talked about the night before after their car session. But slowly, her thoughts drifted to other parts of that night, and while she could blame it on still being sleepy, she was definitely awake when she realized how much time she had daydreamed away, and that if she were late, Natasha would probably kill her. Which maybe if it got them alone in a room together wouldn’t be too bad, her thoughts drifted again, and she shook her head to take away her mind away from there.

She got out of the shower and hustled to Tony’s.

****  
  


“Girlfriend’s already here.” Tony greeted her at the door with, and Pepper lightly shoved him out of the way to get inside instead of waiting for him to stop blocking the way like usual. She noticed Clint over on the couch nearly choke, and Natasha, who was next to him, instantly swat him on the back. Pepper blushed slightly at the terminology, but her mind was instantly flooded with labeling anxieties. Did labels really matter? She thought about Jane and Thor, and all the confusion around them.

“Hey.” Natasha greeted, interrupting her thoughts.

“Hey.” Pepper replied, sitting closely next to her next to her, then, thinking to herself that one act of courage per day never did any harm, leaned over and whispered in Natasha’s ear, “Are we girlfriends?”

Natasha leaned in and whispered back into Pepper ear, “Do you want to be?”

Pepper smiled at the slight tickling sensation from Natasha’s breath in her ear, and whispered back to her, “Yes. Absolutely.” Her head went light from the quick evaporation of her anxieties, and focused on her feet to stabilize her swirling head.

“You guys want to share with the class?” Tony, who had flopped into the chair to the side of the couch loudly asked.

“I was asking if you guys the only ones here?” Pepper came back with, sending an icy glare to her best friend.

“I told her Phil’s bringing his whole committee.” Natasha followed up.

Clint swung his bare feet up and into Natasha’s lap, oblivious to any tension in the room. “You’re welcome. I get credit for the help.”

“Your feet smell.” Natasha told Clint, shoving them off. She stood, glaring at him. “I need to go take some deep breaths in fresh air now. To get the smell out.”

Clint held his hands up in self defense.

Somehow, in the same way girls hear ‘bathroom’ and know it means a mandatory conference, Pepper realized fresh air meant the same. “I’ll come with.” Pepper stood. “Play nice.” She told Tony with a point of her finger in a stern manner, and he rolled his eyes.

****  
  


Pepper grabbed two headlamps on her way to the backyard, and turned them on to see a large grassy area covered in supplies and pre-set booth framework that the school had dropped off the night before. She tossed a headlamp to Natasha, and they turned them on as they stepped out onto the porch. The strong, wide, slightly red tinted beams illuminated the grass ahead, and the amount of work that went with it, and Pepper sighed, closing the door to the house behind them. There was a long pause, and Pepper let the quietness of the early morning wash over the two of them.

After the pause became too long- But not awkward, Pepper noted. Just calm. Comfortable. And way too long.- Pepper made her way towards the dewy grass. “We might as well get started now.” Her breath was visible in the chill of the morning.

Pepper grabbing a folded booth cover at the base of the porch, and heaved it onto her shoulder. The weight made her body struggle to stay upright, and she pushed it around until it balanced on her, taking off some of the stress. It was thick, and rough, and as dense as a lead blanket. “Are these made of kevlar?” Pepper asked, willing herself to move towards the booth framework. She readjusted the fabric on her shoulder again as she began to move.

Natasha looked at her funny, then picked up one as well. “Let’s start on the far end.” She suggested, and gracefully strode over to the framework at a clipping pace. Pepper found herself breathing heavily, sweating hard and getting a full body workout just to keep up, but at least it kept her warm.

Pepper raked her mind for something to say as they walked along. “I wonder if Fury will show up.” She threw out.

“I wonder who else will.” Natasha mumbled, and Pepper squinted at Natasha, thankful she was in front of her and could not see the confusion on her face. Natasha dropped down the cover she was carrying, miles in front of Pepper.

“Grab a corner when you make it here.” Natasha instructed.

“Come back over here and help me!” Pepper insisted, and Natasha jogged over to her girlfriend. As soon as the readhead took on the weight of one side, Pepper gave a huge sigh of relief. They walked in tandem to Natasha’s lone tarp. “Thank you.” Pepper told her, then bent over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

Natasha bent over in front of her, catching Pepper’s eyes. “It’s better to put your hands behind your head and stand up straight.”

Pepper straightened herself up, with her hands behind her back, and looked at the sky, her breath slowly coming back as she took in the cool air. “That was really heavy.”

Natasha ignored her comment. “Help me put this on a booth.”

Pepper took one last deep breath, then grabbed two corners and lifted, noticing the twist in the fabric. She switched her hands, and the sheet writhed. The twist now was in the other direction and Pepper looked at Natasha for an explanation, who was looking just as expectantly back at her. “Okay,” Pepper began, her breathing finally normalizing. “I’ll switch you hold.”

Natasha stayed still as she switched the corners once more, and the tarp flattened. “On three we put it on top of the frame?” Natasha asked.

“On three.” Pepper answered, and Natasha counted up.

“… Three.” She finished. They moved in sync, Pepper reaching up and dragging the heavy material over the roof, and Natasha reaching as high as possible and tip-toeing forward to make up for lost inches. Pepper bit her lip to avoid grinning.

Pepper quickly secured her end with the small piece of rope that was already hooked into the frame, then looked over to realize Natasha was still struggling to reach it.

The strawberry blond walked around the frame and came up behind her girlfriend. “We all have our strengths.” She reached above the red head and secured the rope.

****  
  


Four covers later, Natasha switched off her head lamp, turned off Pepper’s and pushed her against the inside of a frame they had just covered. Pepper quickly switched her’s off as well, and her left hand found the small of Natasha’s back, hugging her tightly. Her other arm ached with fatigue from lifting the covers, but managed to reach up and frame Natasha’s jaw, with was enthusiastically working. The grass crinkled under their feet, the sun coming up slowly to start the morning, and Pepper felt butterflies.

She could tell Natasha had showered in the morning by how damp her ponytail still was, and how soft her skin felt. She bit the redhead’s lip slightly, and felt Natasha’s grip on her waist tighten. Pepper was dizzy with bliss as her girlfriend continued to push up against her, fitting perfectly when her head was tipped up just so.

Her headlamp began to fall, and Pepper decided it was not worth dealing with. She took it off and set it on the ground. Natasha paused for a moment, and Pepper took off her’s as well, gingerly pulling the elastic band up, as not to disturb her hair. The moment of separation made Pepper realize how nice the body heat from Natasha was, and Pepper ran her hand down the other girl’s arm, giving a quick kiss to a smirky Natasha’s forehead.

Natasha got an odd look on her face, and Pepper had a moment of panic that she had done something wrong, gone too far with the affection.

“Listen,” Natasha said.

Pepper listened as the crinkle of footsteps softly got louder, and the area outside the booth began to lighten. Natasha leaned up to give Pepper another peck on the lips, then stepped away to straighten out her shirt.

Phil rounded the bend with his team, their bright lights shining harshly into the small booth. “Would you care for some help?” He asked, his voice loud enough to hear, but cautious enough not to wake the neighbors.

“Teams of two.” Pepper spoke back, knowing what needed to be done like the back of her hand, and trying not to focus on how rumpled her shirt was. “We need covers, tables and one bin in each. They’re marked with the booth number.” She pointed to the one in the booth they currently were in.

Phil turned and relayed the info to his group, and the pack quickly and quietly split up. Natasha bumped Pepper’s shoulder at pointed casually at how smug Phil looked, beaming at his well oiled team. Pepper smiled at how adorable Phil could be when he was proud.

He began to walk away, then turned back to the two girls. “By the way, you might want to put your headlamps back on. Looks a little suspicious.”

Pepper nodded at him, picking up her’s and Natasha’s as soon as he turned away.

****  
  


More and more people were showing up. Some were leadership students and their siblings, others friends of people in Phil and Pepper’s committees, and a few randoms. Phil let them pair themselves, then sent them off with a task. Groups of two for the coverings, groups of two for tables, groups of two for placing the prize and games bins; it was like Noah’s ark, only with leadership kids instead of animals and a carnival instead of an ark.

Everything was coming together so nicely.

Pepper touched Natasha’s arm gently in the middle of their observance of the display. “Chairs.”

Her eyes flicked down to Pepper’s hand before popping back up and starting towards the side of the house, where rows and rows of folded auditorium style chairs laid on a lengthy roller. They each grabbed two chairs and went to the two nearest booths, opening them and placing them within. Soon, those who were done with their first task joined in, and on Pepper’s fourth trip, there were hardly any chairs left. From inside, someone shouted, “Food!” and the faces of every teenager within earshot began to beam with eagerness, following the voice inside.

Natasha was at Pepper’s side when a small stampede towards the kitchen began, and they looked at the enormity of the carnival now that everyone was out of the way of the view. It’s structure was entirely up.

“What time is it?” Pepper asked Nat.

She pulled her phone from her back pocket. “Five.”

Pepper smiled incredulously at how fast things flew by. “Want to get some food?”

Natasha grabbed Pepper’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “Not like there’s much else to do.”

They walked slowly to the front of the house, trailing down the center aisle of the booths.

“I like how they set up the spin art.”

“You don’t think anyone is going to trip on that cord, right?”

“Oh, wow. Thor and Sif made a second map? That’s great.”

Natasha let go of Pepper’s hand right before they came into view of the house, no longer cloaked by the booths, and Pepper opened the door for Natasha to enter first.

The kitchen was crammed with more people than Pepper thought possible. She sighed at the mass, her rumbling stomach less than pleased.

“Pepper?” Tony yelled, laying on the couch on his back with a large tray of food on his stomach like some kind of privileged otter. “Pepper!”

She rolled her eyes, and Natasha gave her a questioning look as the older girl trudged over. “What?”

“Pack for me.” He whined.

Pepper took one of his croissants. “Pack for what?”

Tony lifted an eyebrow and moved the platter off of him to sit up. “I’m crashing at yours for a couple of days? Your idea, not mine.”

Pepper’s mouth made an ‘o’ as she recalled the deal, then relaxed. “I never agreed to packing for you.”

Tony’s eyebrows jumped twice in succession. He made a sweeping gesture over the platter. “For just two bags, all this could be yours! But wait! There’s more!” Tony reached under the couch and pulled a hamster bottle full of deep black liquid. “Bot treat.”

Pepper placed a hand on her hip. “Tony, I have things to do.”

He put his hands up. “Natasha can go with you.”

Pepper blushed and tried for a comeback, “Tony!” She took a breath to try and lower the temperature in her cheeks. It didn’t help, so she took the platter from the pest instead, and made a gesture at him that let him know he was in for trouble later before heading upstairs with Natasha trailing behind.

She typed in the access code at the top of the stairs before entering his floor, then typed a second code for Tony’s room. Natasha held onto the platter for her each time, and upon trying to hand it back the second time, Pepper refused to take it. “Just stay behind me.” Pepper told her, holding the black inky liquid in her right hand, and the door knob with her left. She nodded at Natasha once she was behind, then opened the door just wide enough for the two to get through.

Dummy wheels, to the trained ear, could be heard spinning wildly all the way from outside the door. Pepper was very trained. When it was opened, not only were there many things on the floor to watch out for, but a giant heap of helper AI lobbing towards the girls.

“Dummy, don’t you dare!” Pepper yelled at him. The bot perked up, and slowed down, coming to a full stop right in front of them. “Good boy.”

Dummy whirred. Pepper gave him a squeeze of oil behind the claw. He chirped twice, and Pepper asked him to get two of Tony’s smallest suitcases. He beeped, and Pepper gave him some more oil, this time on a wheel. He went on his way into the closet.

“Am I allowed to ask why Tony is hiding at your place?” Natasha toed a dirty shirt out of her way and glanced around. The bed was unmade, the covers almost completely thrown off the mattress. There were papers haphazardly taped on the parts of the walls that were not directly written on, nut and bolts scattered here and there, and something that may have been a desk at some point before it was buried in laundry and paper. Pepper noticed the lack of any food remains or wrappings, and made a mental note to feed her best friend more often.

“Probably not.” Pepper answered her. “Maybe after the press are done. Make of that statement what you will.”

They made their way through the hazard and found a small patch of untouched floor, where the food was delicately placed. Dummy could be heard bumbling about in the closet, but the bumbling soon turned into frantic swerving and chirping. Glass shattered, and Natasha’s eyebrows scrunched up. Pepper just smiled patiently. “Just wait.” She told the younger girl.

Pepper stepped away from the food spot and scooped up any offending mess she came across it, tossing it to the side and clearing a path to the closet. She shoved the final mass in the corner just outside of the doors, then stepped back and braced herself, arms forward as if she were in a wrestling match and feet staggered powerfully.

Dummy burst through the door closest to the wall. He slowed after hitting the speed bump of the laundry, and Pepper grabbed onto the moving frame of the bot as crashed into her in the path. “Good boy, good boy.” She cooed, holding him still and wrenching the suitcases from his claw. “Stay.” She put the suitcases down and oiled the joint that mounted his camera. He beeped at the half full bottle. “I promise to give you the rest if you go to your charging station.” Pepper replied, and Dummy nodded, clunking across the room to the rig.

“Virginia Potts: robot whisperer.” Natasha whispered jokingly, and joined Pepper where she stood.

Pepper grinned. “If only.” She opened one suitcase, stepped over it and entered the closet, Natasha following silently.

Pepper observed Natasha’s reaction as she took in the sight for the first time. Her eyes widened as they glanced over dress shirts, ties, pant suits, even sunglasses not only hanging up, but also scattered all over the floor. Another floor mirror had been shattered, leaving only one of the remaining three intact. There was an army of dress shoes underneath the lowest shelf. However, Pepper noticed, the higher shelves were almost bare. Natasha crossed the room and opened a random drawer. Pepper sighed “Really, Ton?” She murmured at the sight of the holder stuffed full of red underwear and yellow socks. Pepper groaned.

“Are they not clean? They look clean.” Natasha scrunched her nose at the fabrics.

“Oh, they’re clean.” Pepper cringed. “At least two weeks worth of clean.”

Pepper and Nat stared at each other for a long, stretching moment, and shared an “Ew.” Pepper shook it off and grabbed a handful of the red underwear, not bothering to count them out, and tossed them into the open suitcase. They were followed by an incoming of socks.

Some rifling through the slightly flammable smelling pile in the back later, and the socks were followed with jeans, shirts, undershirts, and three pairs of sunglasses. The suitcase bulged.

The second one, which was considerable smaller, was taken into the bathroom by Pepper. The wide array of products were placed carefully in order, leaning against the mirror. With a wide swing of her arm, they were all knocked off the counter and into the bag. She opened the medicine cabinet and did the same, then with the drawer, then with the shower rack, all while being careful to leave the package labeled ‘Pepper’ undisturbed. Pepper zipped it up afterwards and tossed it onto the bed. “Now for the fun part.”

Natasha followed Pepper back into the closet, where there was nothing left but formal wear, business casual, and shattered glass. “We have to show up at the dance.” Pepper explained.

Natasha nodded, carefully asking. “Are you staying the whole time?” She pushed around some blue suits that were pressed so thin, not a single wrinkle could be found.

“Not really.” Pepper was looking through the pinstripe section, holding up a pair of black oxfords to each one before moving onto the next. “Just… Facetime. Thirty minutes tops.” She gave up and went to the regular black suits.

Natasha continued going through the other side of the closet, flipping through the jackets. “Hey, Pepper?”

“Oh, found it!” Pepper said at the same time, pulling a deep black suit with a strong lapel but by no means flamboyant. “Perfect.” She hung it up on the door with matching shoes at the bottom of the ensemble.

“Pepper.” Natasha said again.

“One second, just let me find a tie.” She spun the tie rack, grabbing a matte maroon tie and held it up for inspection.

“Pepper, that’s not going to match your dress how you want it to.” Natasha blurted out, and Pepper’s face scrunched up.

“What do you mean it won’t match my dress? He said we’re doing r-“ She turned around, and saw what Natasha was holding up. “Wow.”

The dress was a perfect champagne, with an illusion, semi-sweetheart neckline, crepe fabric skirt, and no sleeves. It was elegant except for the little flat sparkles highlighting the rim and waist that made it just tacky enough to make it the perfect homecoming dress.

“Try it on.” Natasha held it out.

Pepper accepted it. “How did you know it was for me?”

“Didn’t know Tony was into cross dressing as someone tall.”

Pepper rolled her eyes, but was smiling.

“I’ll turn around.” Natasha told her.

Somewhat self consciously, Pepper took the dress out of its plastic cover, and hung it up to the side. Silently, she thanked Tony that the room wasn’t cold, then shimmied out of her jeans, followed by her shirt. She unzipped the back of the dress, and gingerly stepped into the silky, thin fabric, pulling it up by the cups, and adjusted the skirt. Pepper frowned at the built in bra, rolled her eyes, then held up the dress with one hand, taking her regular bra off with the other. She turned to the mirror and looked it over. It fit perfectly. “Zip me?” She asked her girlfriend.

“Sure.”

Pepper saw Natasha’s reflection appear over her shoulder, and the older girl bit her lip as the younger’s knuckles brushed her back when delicately pulling the clasp at the top of the dress together. Natasha then pinched the bottom of the zipper’s fabric while dragging the small tab upward, and Pepper carefully let go of the front of the dress once she was sure it would hold up on its own. She was smiling softly when Natasha finished zipping, and propped her chin onto Pepper’s shoulders. Arms encircled Pepper’s waist. The bits of red hair that had escaped Natasha’s ponytail tickled Pepper’s neck, and she could smell rose.

Pepper leaned into the touch.

“You look nice.” Natasha murmured in her ear. “At least for homecoming.” She added, teasingly.

“You smell nice. And you don’t think I should wear this to the carnival?” Pepper teased back, running her hands sweetly along Natasha’s pale arms, her head turned just enough to glance at Natasha without the aid of the mirror.

Natasha grinned, looking perfectly content. “I’d love for you to wear this to the carnival, but my judgment is a little impaired.”

Pepper began to turn around in Natasha’s arms, but Natasha dropped them. Pepper settled for kissing her gently. “I agree.”

Natasha seemed distracted, dragging her finger down Pepper’s neck and along her shoulder. “You have really nice skin.” She murmured.

Pepper shivered, shaking her head, and dragged her fingers across Natasha collarbone until she shivered as well. “You too.”

Natasha’s pupils widened, and Pepper’s hand worked its way across Nat’s shoulders and up to the back of her neck. Everything that wasn’t Natasha swirled out as their lips smoothly glided together.

When they pulled away, Pepper took Natasha’s hands and gave them a gentle squeeze before summoning all her willpower and turning back to the mirror, admiring the view. “Unzip me so we can get out of here?”

Natasha opened her mouth to speak, but another voice seemed to come out.

“Pepper?”

“Or not.” Pepper muttered as the yell sounded again, followed by a brisk knock and heavy footsteps. “Pepper!”

“What?” She hollered back.

“The clubs are –Dummy! Get in your charger! What did I tell you? What did I –Nevermind.” Tony entered into view, frustratingly running his hand through his hair. His eyebrows jumped when he finally noticed them. “Nice dress.”

“Thanks.” Pepper did a small swivel to show of the skirt. “And, also, thanks. For the dress.”

“No problem. You look good.” He said sincerely, glancing at Natasha quickly, then at the floor awkwardly. “Anyway, the clubs are here, so I’m going to go hide in the lab until there is a considerable lack of people in my house.”

Natasha gave Pepper an odd look, surely from picking up on Tony’s shift. Pepper shrugged. He would never admit it, but people tired him out. Robots, however…

“Come on, Dummy.” They heard. “If you’re not going to charge, you are going to work.” The sound of whirrs and chirps followed the sound of footsteps, then the elevator, and then nothing.

Natasha paused. “Let me help you into your clothes.” She offered and Pepper looked down, remembering the dress once more.

“Thanks.” She turned to face the mirror, and Natasha unzipped the back, then covered her eyes with one hand.

Pepper blushed, and her stomach stirred as carefully stepped out of the wrinkle prone dress. Pepper stood bare of everything except underwear, and Natasha bent down to pick up the taller girl’s bra. Pepper took it, their fingers brushing and Pepper shivered as she pulled on her bra.

Natasha uncovered her eyes and picked up Pepper’s shirt. “Arms up.”

Pepper stretched her hands towards the ceiling. Natasha stood behind her with the shirt.

“Not that up.” Natasha amended, and Pepper laughed at her height problem. She lowered her arms, and Natasha adjusted the garment over them, pulling it slowly down her torso, the tips of her fingers tracing the skin below the hem as the fabric lowered. The fingers traced her spine, the curve of her sides, pulling her closer and closer until she was nearly flush against the smaller girl.

Natasha made a humming noise as her fingers lowered past the point of Pepper’s navel, and then they were on the hem of Pepper’s underwear, teasing the lip of the flimsy white fabric. Pepper shivered into the touch.

“Nat.” Pepper sighed.

Natasha kissed Pepper’s shoulder blade, then took a step back. “Sorry.” She said unapologetically.

Pepper bend down to grab her pants. As she pulled up the jeans, Natasha’s eyes raked over her, and Pepper found it increasingly difficult to work a zipper and button. Pepper turned around to Natasha, and swallowed hard.

“Clubs?” Pepper choked out.

“Clubs.” Natasha repeated slowly. “Right. Just…” She took a step forward, snaked one arm around Pepper’s waist, the other gently looped her neck, and Natasha pushed up on her toes to kiss Pepper deeply. Pepper stumbled back with a moan. Her back bumped the new mirror Dummy had yet to shattered and stayed there, the coolness of the glass seeping through her shirt a stark contrast to the heat soaking into her skin from Natasha. The strawberry blond began to tangle her hand in Natasha’s hair, then remembered it was up in a ponytail, and expressed her discontent in grazing her teeth along Natasha’s lower lip. Natasha sighed, and her tongue slipped into Pepper’s mouth, the heat and wetness making Pepper groan again. Pepper felt Natasha’s hand cup her face to deepen the kiss even further, and Pepper’s knees went weak. She sunk down, with Natasha following closely.

They landed with a thud, and Pepper laughed, kissing back in a quick peck. Natasha let her arms give out and layed on top of Pepper, hugging her by default.

Natasha’s head went against Pepper’s shoulder, and the older girl breathed in the rose scent as she rested her head on top of the younger girl’s. “I messed up your hair.” Pepper whispered after a moment, and Natasha laughed, then waved her off, kissing Pepper lightly on the cheek and got up to straightening out her shirt and readjust her ponytail.

“Seeing your underwear more than made up for it. Let’s go greet the clubs.” Natasha said, moving out of the closet with a swish to her hips, and Pepper followed her, a hop in her step too.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Making their way downstairs, it was impossible to miss the army like mass in the room leading out to the backyard. Weaving in and out of the army were Thor, Victor, and Frank, passing out different colored papers. At the front was Sif, tall and mighty, her voice booming like a goddess as she began.

“Welcome, friends!” She grinned widely. “Among you are three who will first be requiring you to sign in before giving you a map for your guidance and wristbands at the number of your request for volunteers and volunteers alone. I trust you only have the purest of intentions, as every wristband counts in the way of profit for our school. Do not lose them. Do not be generous.

“When you reach your booth, you will find an instructions packet to follow. Water sources and electrical outlets should be available for all that require it. However if there are any questions about these amenities, Reed, Jane or Bruce will be available for help. With general questions, anyone in a leadership shirt will be more than happy to assist you. In addition to this, I recognize that some of you may need help with the more gargantuous of objects. The side of the house is open for that, and Steve, Thor, Bucky and myself will be available for lifting.” Sif finally paused for breath, smiled, then stepped to the side. “Merry set up, friends!”

The four committee members were fish swimming up stream as the mass exited. “Pepper!” Sif’s voice was rich with pride. Natasha stepped down to the rest of the team’s level.

“Sif!” Pepper responded. “Everyone,” she addressed the committee. “Thank you.” She lingered her gaze with everyone to show how sincerely she meant it, but shyly broke her gaze with Natasha slightly sooner than the others. “This event is going to happen because of your dedication, and I’m extremely grateful to have worked with you all.”

Sif beamed with Thor and the other boys bobbed their heads, murmuring thanks. Natasha was back to being blank faced and slightly distracted as she reworked her hair into a pony.

“This has been, despite the ups and downs,” Frank’s eyes dropped to the floor and his cheeks reddened slightly. “what I feel is a great start to a dynamic year. Great job, everyone.” Pepper smiled widely, proud of her team, and Thor bowed his head in recognition of his thanks. Pepper’s smile dropped into something more relaxed, natural. “I’m going to go walk the floor and check up on some things, but unless you are needed somewhere here, you’re free to go and enjoy yourselves or head to school. Make sure you grab a wristband yourself, and don’t forget your shift at the information booth in the afternoon.”

“Thank you, Pepper.” Victor shook her hand as she stepped down from the stair.

She shook it back. “My pleasure.”

Sif gave her a high-five, Thor a hug, and Richard a nod. Frank shot her a smile last minute, and Natasha held Pepper’s eye contact as their shoulders brushed on Pepper’s way out, her green eyes flickering unreadably.

Pepper’s subtle, close-mouthed smile stuck on as she left the building and went onto the grass. Phil appeared out of nowhere and flanked her side. “Quite the show you’re running here.”

“Tell me about it.” Pepper shook her head, smile stretching at the flattery. “I’m sure your’s will be just as intense. Everything ready for the parade?”

“Would I be here if it wasn’t?” Phil deadpanned, the grass crunching under his weight as he walked.

Pepper shrugged. “Working any booths?”

“Just the dunk tank, unfortunately.”

Pepper stopped abruptly. “There is no dunk tank. Not that I approved.”

Phil stopped as well, putting one arm on Pepper’s shoulder and pointing with the other. Low and behold, being carried by Steve, Thor, Sif, Carol, and T’challa was a flat tank. “Natasha approved it as the ASB booth, and Tony gave you third shift.”

Pepper processed this, then kept walking to the start of the booth rows, thinking of all the different ways she could kill Tony for taking advantage of his power. However, instead of voicing those thoughts, she stopped at a simple, “Okay.”

They walked passed the empty info-booth, then Darcy and Jan’s facepaint booth. Jan was buzzing about, taping up example designs all along the booth walls. She waved to Pepper, and Pepper did the same back. One down from them was Peter’s photo booth, the heavy black curtains on the outside in stark contrast to the red and blue sign advertising what was inside. Wade Wilson was on the other side shouting at everyone who passed to try a free burrito made purely of salsa, hot sauce, and tortilla.

Across from Wade, America Chavez was offering free test rounds of her game. Her ‘Test your strength’ hammer and bell game had originally been from the school, rigged so that everyone was a winner, but she had decided to fix it. She had also then taken up the challenge of integrating the new device into the carnival, and Phil goaded Pepper to test it with him. She took the hammer from America and sized up the machine. It was only slightly taller than Pepper, made for small children. She shot Phil an odd look, and America smirked. Pepper slammed down the hammer, and much to her surprise, her marker didn’t move. Phil then tried and had the same result.

****  
  


“I’m a little rusty.” Phil joked as America tried it herself and hit the top.

“It’s alright, chico.” She pat him on the back. “Princess over there,” She pointed to Kate, who was firing arrows around Clint, who was leaned against a target. “She didn’t hit it, and she’s shooting Barton’s 200 pound-force bow better than the boy himself. Take another swing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Phil responded, smiling shyly while still looking at the archers, taking the hammer from America. He spread his legs shoulder with the part and swung. The marker went halfway. “Not bad.” He congratulated himself. “Thank you for the second swing.”

They passed Peggy’s booth where the participant threw a weighted ball at a pyramid of old milk cans, and Jean Grey’s booth where she and her boyfriend Scott had replaced the squirt gun race with a laser gun race. Steve and Bucky’s baseball toss booth was empty, twelve baseballs neatly organized on the table. Pepper noticed one basket was padded at the bottom.

“It’s to make it easier for the little ones.” Phil clarified, a twinkle of admiration in his eye.

Pepper shook her head, not sure what else to have expected. They passed the robotics booth that was empty, save for the robots, some tools and a sticky note on Hank Pym’s ‘Ultron’ bot. Pepper noticed the small heart next to the illegible writing. “That’s cute that Jan left Hank a note.”

Phil shrugged, gravitating towards Jasper, who was manning the funnel cake at the freshman food table, and was holding out a sample for him. Next to him was Foggy and Matt, setting up the junior’s booth still. Pepper watched Kate while waiting for Phil’s return. The archer was not to far away at the range, setting up the same plastic arrows Natasha had shown Pepper at the apartment. Pepper lightly bit her lip, thinking back to that night. When Phil rejoined her, he was wiping powdered sugar off his shirt like a professional.

"I think you're supposed to pay for that." Pepper nudged him with her shoulder.

"Was I?" Phil didn't nudge back. "I'll keep that in mind."

"That's abuse of office!" Clint shouted, overhearing their conversation from the range. Kate rolled her eyes next to him.

Phil silently flipped him off.

Clint walked over to them. "You love me." He teased. "We should go to homecoming together. I'll drive you and everything. Just so Kate doesn’t tease me about being old and alone."

Pepper was torn between quietly exiting the conversation, and staying by Phil to give him support. Phil chose for her. “Pepper’s taking me.” He hesitated. “Driving me. Not taking me. ASB stuff.” Clint smirked, and Phil added, “Can’t bring regulars.”

“Aww, ASB.” Clint whined as Kate came from behind to stand next to him. “Kate, what about your after party at your fancy mansion place?”

Kate squinted at him, then lightly hit him on the back of his head.

“Aww, Kate.” Clint whined again, rubbing his head.

“I’m not having an after party.” She clarified.

Clint squeezed one eye shut in thought. “Well do you want to come back to my place and hang? Its shabby, but it was good enough for Pepper and Tash.” He winked at Pepper, and she blushed.

“I appreciate the offer, but ASB has to take care of our post homecoming agenda where we tally the classes and fundings and what not.” Phil smoothly excused himself.

“Bullshit.” Clint said with a lopsided grin. “but I’m glad I’m worth the lying effort. Are you going to avoid Tash too?” He addressed Pepper.

“Clint you’re welcome to join the rest of us. Tony and I are ditching after a few minutes of meet and greet and then heading back to mine. Nat and I were going to probably take off, but it’d be fun to have the usual gang over. Phil, is that okay?”

“Thank you, Pepper, but I don’t want to ruin your fun.” Phil gave her a weak smile.

Pepper’s brows furrowed. “Phil, you wouldn’t be ruining anything. I want you there.”

“I need to check in with my team now.” Phil told her, then turned to head back to the house.

Clint shrugged. “I’ll drive Tash over around nine?”

“Sounds perfect.” Pepper told him, then went to follow Phil back towards the house.

****  
  


Approaching the building, Pepper heard Tony’s voice come from the basement window. “Pepper?”

She squatted next to it, and in her best cheerful voice replied, “Yes?”

“Something’s wrong.” He read her, the tips of his black hair barely visible in the opening of the frosted window. “You can tell me about it later. I want to show you something first.” He moved away from the window.

Pepper pushed it open the rest of the way and slipped through it with practiced ease. The familiar smell of scorched metal and oil filled her nose, and Dummy’s chirps entered her ears in time for her to move out of the bot’s way. Tony closed the window she had entered through and crossed through the lab to the largest holographic monitor.

“Your halloween costume?” Pepper gave the well known design a once over. There was something more… aerodynamic about the design. The red and gold blended into the joins and creases. She spun the hologram.

Tony pushed his hands in the design then threw them apart, flinging each individual part away into electronic oblivion. All that was left were something akin to a nervous system. “Close.” Tony grabbed the centerpiece, blue and silver and too much like the real one. “But no cigar.”

“You integrated your heart monitor?” Pepper’s eyebrows scrunched up. “And it, what, powers your costume?”

Tony collapsed the device. “It’s no longer a costume Pep. And the reactor is no longer just for my ticker. Jarvis, open up the Mark II.” Tony sauntered to a moving panel on the wall near the small kitchenette. The same image that was in the hologram materialized from a case, much shinier and sturdy looking than last year. “Pepper, meet Mark, my functional and hopefully flight capable exoskeleton.”

Pepper approached the small, Tony shaped bot. “But the program you had in the library, it’s autonomous. Did you make a single flight path?”

“I like to think of it as power steering. I’ll patch Jarvis into the helmet later too, have Rhodey put some of his ROP air force classes to the test for the flight program. Until then it’s just a normal windshield with a hell of a lot of blind spots. Not much but I thought you’d want to see it first.”

Pepper ran a hand over the spot where Tony’s heart device would go. “What do you mean first? And doesn’t Rhodey have ROP classes after school?”

Tony smirked.

Pepper’s mouth was faster than her mind. “You are not about to ruin the carnival by having one of you inventions light up the sky with Tony bits. I refuse to have you ruin one plan and replace them with funeral plans.”’

“It’s just one test flight!” Tony whined.

“Tony! You have no flight skills at all. You can’t even drive a car.” Pepper’s heart picked up speed, thinking of all the things that could go wrong.

“I can drive a car! It’s just not legal. I’m thinking I’ll call it Iron Man.”

Pepper shook her head and thought of the robotics booth outside. “Has Hank seen it?”

“I just told you I wanted you to be the first to see it, Pep! And Hank’s great at biochem, maybe even a little engineering, but his Ultron looks like the tin man compared to mine. Did I mention it can fly?” Tony squeezed past Pepper and stood between her and the bot.

“Tony, fine. You want to fly, fine. I’m sure everyone thought the Wright Brothers were just as mad, but can you not do it today? At the carnival? Please?”

“Alright, mom. But if it works, do you want one?”

“Tony-”

He put his hands up in front of his chest. “Think on it, Pep. All you have to do is tell me what you want your codename to be, and I’ll get the hint.”

“We’re not superheroes, Tony.” Pepper shook her head. “There’s no one to save.”

“But think of the discount on student parking.” Tony grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m going upstairs.” Pepper headed to the large glass door on the side of the room. “Have you eaten today?”

“Yes, mom.” He trailed her.

Pepper pulled open the door, then turned her head to face him a few feet back. “And Tony?”

“Yes, mom?”

“I saw the dunk tank. You’re going to enjoy my bedroom’s floor this weekend.” She smiled and left.

“I’m making you a robot suit!” Tony yelled after her, but it was just a faint whisper through the heavy glass.

****  
  


Pepper was idly drawing red wisps on her paper in her fifth period class when she a figure walk by, twinkling their fingers in a friendly hello. They slowed up when Pepper waved back, and that was when she recognized them.

Pepper cursed herself for being habitually courteous as she started into the eyes of Justin Hammer.

She went back to drawing red wisps once he was out of sight, and eventually added green eyes and a button nose.

****  
  


At lunch, Pepper met with the rest of the ASB team in the leadership room for celebration cake.

“To a horribly unsmooth homecoming!” Tony toasted by holding up his slice. “And Phil, who forgot to bring forks even though I never told him to!”

Phil blushed, and Tony ate his cake face first.

****  
  


When the last bell rang, Pepper made her way against the flow of students to the parking lot. She wasn’t surprised to see Natasha leaning against the hood of her car. “Did you see him?” Pepper asked.

“He didn’t exactly try to go under the radar.” Natasha adjusted her backpack as she moved to the passenger side of the car. Pepper unlocked it and slid into the drivers seat. She sighed as she put on her seatbelt.

“Hey,” Natasha said, her fingers ghosting along Pepper’s hand on the seat belt snap. “He’s not going to ruin this.”

Pepper took her hand. “I know.”

****  
  


“JARVIS?” Pepper asked the moment she pulled into the garage of Tony’s.

“If it is extra security you are asking for, Ms. Potts, Sir, wanted me to inform you that he has doubled it since encountering Mr. Hammer at school today. He said not to worry.” The AI responded without missing a beat.

“Thank you.” Pepper told him, entering the second lobby as she followed Natasha up the stairs. The garage door closed and locked behind them. “Nothing to worry about.” She said under her breath. “Nat, do you want something to eat?”

“Hmm?” She answered. “No, thanks. I’m going to go double check some things, alright?”

“Alright.” Pepper waited for an invitation to come along, but when she heard the back door click knew it wouldn’t come. She around the side to Tony’s lab.

****  
  


When Pepper entered through the gate, the first thing she noticed was the open basement window. She hit ‘1’ on her phone and speed dial called the house.

JARVIS picked up. “Yes, Ms. Potts?”

“Has anyone entered the basement today?”

“From the front entrance? No.”

Pepper locked her car and headed towards the side of the house. “And the windows?”

“I have not been programmed to check for window access to the basement, Ms. Potts.”

Pepper sighed and hung up. She listened, and there was clearly movement inside. She crouched low, her eyes just barely able to peek in without laying down.

“Pepper?” Her eyes darted towards the sound. “Pepper Potts?”

“What the hell?” Pepper positioned herself and slid through the window into the basement. She felt the anger flicker up inside of her as she witnessed Justin Hammer flicked through Dummy’s design code and the bot himself partially dismantled on his charging station. “You’re kidding me, right? JARVIS? Call the police. Tell them Justin Hammer has broken and entered into the Stark home, damaged property and tampered with proprietary information. I can’t deal with this right now.”

“Whoa! Harsh much? JARVIS, cancel that.”

“They are on their way Ms. Potts. Would you like me to notify Mr. Stark as well?”

Pepper felt the wind taken out of her. “Mr. Stark? Like, Howard? No! No, no, no! Oh god, he already must know. Because he’s the owner. Wonderful. Now not only will the carnival be all about Stark Industries, but Tony… Great. You know what? Tell him, and tell him not to worry, that it is being handled by, I don’t know. Call Principal Fury and have him sort it out. And have Tony’s bags upstairs delivered to my house as soon as possible, as well as any other necessities that may have been overlooked.”

“JARVIS, this is a complete over reaction, and I for one-”

“Shut the hell up!” Pepper screamed at the freshman. “What did you do to my bot?”

The boy adjusted his glasses. “Isn’t it Tony’s bot?”

“Answer my question.” Pepper growled.

Justin flinched. “He was making a mess and clearly malfunctioning, or at least burdened by deficient artificial intelligence, so I fixed him.”

“There was nothing to fix!” Pepper screamed. “How dare you! You couldn’t fix a goddamn sandwich if you even tried. You can’t fix anything. Because everything you try to ‘fix’? They. Are. Not. Broken. You are the most arrogant child I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.” Pepper stormed towards him and the tampered bot, shoving the boy out of the way and giving Dummy a check over.

Sirens began fading in, and Pepper gave him the coldest look she could manage. “Get out. Go through the window and to the front. Happy homecoming.”

Pepper turned to Dummy, not caring to look at the boy any longer. “What did he do to you?”


	8. Chapter 8

Pepper finished restoring as much mechanical work as she could remember how to, then sent Dummy to his charging station. She dropped her dirty, grease covered jacket on the couch, snapping up an all-remote and turning on the sound system before heading to the kitchenette and raiding the fridge. AC/DC began pumping out of the workshop speakers as Pepper came to realize the drawer labeled as her food was once again empty. Probably because it was the only thing that was ever stocked, and on the bright side, it did mean that Tony was eating for once. She went to her plan B, reaching up and carefully feeling along the top of the fridge for any hidden snacks. Tony was squirrelly like that. Her hand made contact with a small packet of dried blueberries.

“Pepper.” Tony scolded her from the door. “You know how hard it is for me to hide things there. You should at least humor me by stretching for it.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and opened the pack, making a point of staring at him while chewing.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Or not. What’s up?”

“Justin Hammer.”

“Don’t worry about it, Pep. We’ve covered it, recovered it, and covered it again. He is so gone.” Tony waltzed over to the couch and bent down, feeling between it and the floor. “So stop stressing.” He pulled a thin envelope and tossed it over to her. It landed with a thud and a crack, smooth side up and with Pepper’s name written on it in red.

Pepper ate another blueberry, then picked the packet up. She weighed it in her palm, then ripped it open. The silver wrapping around the chocolate bar glittered out, and she tossed the all-remote back to her best friend.

tony caught it and changed the music to something quieter.

“He was in here you know.” Pepper broke off a large piece of the chocolate, then set down the bar next to her.

Tony took the remote with him back to where Pepper was, hopping up on the counter to sit. “Yeah? Son of a bitch.”

“He altered Dummy’s code and his frame. I fixed as much as the frame as I could. He was trying to limit his range of motion to increase precision.”

“Which is entirely not the purpose of Dum,” Tony stole a blueberry. “I’ll work on him now and finish if I need to after I’m done hiding at your place. And the code I can to remotely if he is in his charger. He’s a trooper.”

Pepper gave a long look at the bot while making her way across the room to shove the candy bar back under the couch. “He really is. I’ll leave you to your fixing then?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Tony hopped down from the counter. “Are you done with the chocolate though? There really isn’t any food down here and I have to go greet someone and they are going to be hungry.”

Pepper tossed back to him the chocolate and went upstairs.

****  
  


“Are Frank and Thor situated at the booth?” Natasha asked, sticking her head around the corner of the door leading to the outside.

Pepper watched her step inside, and was sure to close the door for her so that volunteers didn’t wander in. The house was closed until take down. “I just checked on them, so yes.” She laced her hand into Natasha’s. “I’m worried about Dummy.”

Natasha tightened her fingers a bit, reassuring Pepper. “Everything’s fine. Tony is taking care of it. Just relax.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Everything could be not fine in second if we don’t stay on top of it, Nat.”

Natasha tugged on Pepper’s arm, and they began walking through the house with her taking the lead. “What? Darcy’s going to let the puppy petting zoo loose?”

“That could happen.” Pepper reasoned. “Not on purpose, although maybe if it were a dare, but it could still happen. We should check, at least.”

Natasha invaded Pepper’s space until she was on the tips of her toes, kissing her girlfriend. It was gentle and quiet, and Pepper leaned into the sweetness of it. “Pep, it’s fine.” She said as she pulled away.

“Well, with that kind of logic…” Pepper craned her neck to kiss her more. She brushed the top of Natasha’s cheek with her thumb as she sucked on the shorter girl’s upper lip. At the same time, Natasha’s fingers were cold on her neck. “I’ll pretend to believe you.”

“Good.” Natasha touched Pepper’s jaw.

“Alright, I’m only going to say this once, because I consider myself grown man now.” Pepper turned her head to see Tony next to a tall familiar figure. “But you two are gross in a very sweet way.”

Pepper face lit up. “Rhodey! I thought you had ROP stuff! Don’t start cutting class for Tony’s sake.”

He shrugged. “Hairline fracture to the twelfth rib last week. I told them I was fine, but Doctor told me to take six weeks, which opens up all my afternoons when we do on-site.”

“Surprise!” Tony threw his arms up. “We’re going down to the lab to program the helmets to have night vision, heat scanning, and whatever else the air force has to offer before I am kicked out or murdered because you did all the big stuff on Dummy and it only took a few more tweaks to get him up and spinning. But the code is extremely buggy, so I expect wifi at your house. Also, feel free to continue making out somewhere far away from the lab so I never have to witness my best friend doing that ever again.”

Rhodey raised an eyebrow. “Someone got downgraded to floor, didn’t he?”

Tony began stomping towards the lab floors. “Did I mention robots?” He called behind him.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you later, Pep.” He nodded at Natasha. “Take care of her, Natasha. Later.” He followed Tony out.

“You let Tony sleep in your bed?” Natasha gave Pepper an incredulous look.

Pepper scoffed. “I let him sleep on my pull out. The last thing I need is people thinking I got my ASB position by sleeping with the president.”

Natasha looked down and away, stifling a laugh. “No, you wouldn’t want that.” She held her arm out to Pepper. “Ready to go out there?”

Pepper laced her arm through the smaller girl’s. “Ready.”

****  
  


While the volunteers were doing final checks, buzzing left and right, the crowd waited to be let in, growing steadily outside. The event was overwhelming. Music pumped from Tony’s speakers all over the yard. The sounds of hundreds of voices added to the noise, and the smell of greasy food waffed from every corner. The grass, while still green, had been matted down from the constant scrambling and dragging of heavy objects. The layout that was so burned into Pepper’s mind with graphite and pen was surreal to see up and working.

“Hey! You two!” Jan yelled out, pointing at them with a wet paintbrush as a freshman who had a third shift wristband scampered off, their cheek stained with color. “C’mere!”

Pepper glanced at Natasha and they headed over.

“You seem busy.” Pepper commented, seeing the discarded brushes piled to the right of Jan. Her hands were stained every color of the rainbow, and face getting their as well.

“Not right now.” She assured them. “Sit, both of you. I want to test a new design on you. You aren’t allergic, right?”

“Not that I know of.” Natasha cautiously disclosed.

Jan clapped her hands together. “Great! How does a midnight blue butterfly mask sound.”

Natasha pursed her lips and quirked her head. “Complicated.”

Jan tapped at her phone with the hand least stained, bringing up a reference picture, then dipped a clean brush in a white paint. “Hold still.”

****  
  


“Don’t touch it!” Pepper swatted Natasha’s hands away from her face. “Come here.” She looped an arm around the redhead and pulled her in tight. Her free hand clicked a picture on her phone, documenting the quizzical and slightly annoyed smile on Natasha’s face that was made from the abrupt movement. “You look adorable.” Pepper whispered.

Natasha rolled her eyes, leaning in more, and Pepper smiled at how the junior’s hair tickled her jaw as it touched it. “Look.” Nat pointed towards the booth at the end.

Pepper turned to see Bucky on his knees at the kiddy tape line for their baseball throwing booth. He was tossing at all different strengths into each bin and yelling adjustments to Steve, who was buzzing around trying to fix everything. During the second adjustment, Bucky pulled his long hair into a quick ponytail to keep it out of his eyes when throwing.

“Those two are like ducks. They can’t help but be that way all the time.”

Natasha’s face looked determined. “I should take James up on his hair braiding offer.”

“James?” Pepper asked.

“Bucky.”

“He’d let you braid his hair?” Pepper squinted at her, confused.

“Mhm,” Natasha confirmed. “Give me a second,” She said, pecking Pepper on the cheek.

The redhead briskly walked towards the two boys, and Pepper watched as Bucky obediently stayed on his knees, handing his hair tie to Natasha, and let her comb through his hair with her fingers. Pepper made her way over to Steve.

“How the booth going?” Pepper asked him.

“We can’t get the kid basket right,” Steve confessed. “We want them to be able to get prizes, but also feel challenged.”

“Why not just move the line up more?” Pepper smiled when she noticed that Natasha was not just braiding Bucky’s hair, but french braiding.

“Because then everyone knows it's a cop out,” Steve paused. “Is there something I’m missing with the braiding?”

“I know as much as you do.” Pepper told him.

Steve was quiet again. “Are you guys together now?”

Pepper hesitated. “Yes.” She looked at her girlfriend. “We are.”

Steve let out a small laugh. “Making a lot of boys cry, Potts.”

“And you?” Pepper couldn’t help herself, thinking of Tony. “Asked anyone to homecoming?”

“No,” Steve smiled, and Pepper looked at him curiously. “Peggy asked me.”

“Peggy asked who?” Natasha asked, Bucky with his braided hair in tow.

“Steve.” Bucky said, matter of factly.

“Nice hair.” Steve complemented him.

“Don’t be jealous,” Bucky shot back. “Pepper, can I borrow you for a second?”

Pepper looked at Natasha.

“James, no.” Natasha protested, shooting him daggers.

“Pepper?” Bucky begged her.

Pepper looked at natasha again, then to Bucky. “Sure.”

She followed him to behind the booth.

“Natasha really likes you,” He bluntly started. “And I’m sure Clint has already given you the shovel talk,”

“He hasn’t,” Pepper interrupted, suddenly clear on what was going on.

“But I just wanted to let you know, those Russian assassin programs? I had to lose my arm somewhere.”

Pepper glanced at his silver arm. “Weren’t you born and raised in New York?”

“Be good to her.” Bucky sternly ordered, ignoring the question.

Pepper gave him a small nod. “Noted.”

The went back to the tent, where Steve was ranting about some art piece, and Natasha was listening closely.

“You both should check out the puppies, if you haven’t already. Instagram gold.” Bucky interrupted. “And you are not allowed to asked what we talked about, Romanoff.”

Steve stopped mid sentence. “I’ll let you go then, Nat.”

“I already know what you talked about, Barnes. This booth is made of fabric not metal.” Natasha looked at Pepper. “Let’s head over to the puppy zoo.”

****  
  


Pepper and Nat were walking into the puppy pen, the eager to be adopted animals all excitedly running towards them, when Clint ran up to them as well, entering the pen quickly so that the door could be shut.

“Natasha! Hey.” Clint panted, getting on one knee to thoroughly pet a medium sized dog with one eye and short brown coat. “Pepper.” He greeted as an after thought. The dog licked him and he chuckled, then stood to avoid being distracted by the animal even more. “Uh, so Phil turned me down.” He scratched his neck.

Nat patted him on the head as if he were one of the dogs. “Did you do what I said.”

He swatted her hand away. “Not every one sided hate relationship becomes Pride and Prejudice, Tash.”

Natasha looked at him disapprovingly. “They you didn’t try hard enough, Clint.”

Clint wrinkled his nose at his best friend. “Whatever. Did Pepper tell you about Saturday yet?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at them both.

Pepper realized her cue, lightly tugged Natasha’s wrist, getting her to move away from Clint. “I meant to ask you, everyone is coming over around nine on Saturday. I know we were going to do something with just us, but then there were some logistics error and self-invitations and my promise went out the window, but it will still be nice and wonderful. Clint and I really want you there.”

“Of course I’ll come.” Natasha searched Pepper’s eyes. “What?”

Pepper blinked. “Nothing. I was expecting… I don’t know. I’m glad you’re coming. I still need to tell the others about it. So much for a break from event planning, right?”

“Carnival opens in ten, Pepper. I can tell the others about the party for you. I’m assuming the gelato gang?”

Pepper moved a lock of hair from Natasha’s face fondly, consumed in the never ending thoughtfulness of the girl in front of her. It was like they were in perfect tandem, all the time. “I think I might love you.” She bubbled with contentment, words flowing out before her brain could filter the thought.

Natasha's face dropped. "Right."

Pepper felt her stomach lurch.

The younger girl bit her lip, focusing on the ground. "I'm going to go tell everyone. About the party. I'll see you in a bit."

"Nat..." Pepper’s heartbeat picked up, and it was like a nightmare. Her mind was telling her legs to move, but nothing budged. Any sound her voice tried to make came out as a squeak, and if no one was looking, it sure didn’t feel like it. The panic coursing through her veins made it so she might have well have been on stage.

"We can talk later!" Natasha called over her shoulder, and Pepper found herself turning around, and walking in the opposite direction of her girlfriend.

****  
  


As Pepper approached Clint, he kneeled down to pet the one eyed dog again. “That looked like it went well.” Clint commented, oblivious.

Pepper kneeled with him and scratched the pup’s back as she watched Natasha get farther and farther approaching the tent. “Mhm.”

“You guys talking about having homecoming sex or something?” Clint asked, and Pepper felt her face fill with heat.

“I…” She looked at the grass, contemplating what to say, then back up to where Natasha was, vainly hoping for some guidance, but she was gone. “I am not discussing our conversation with you.”

Clint put his hands up in defence “Alright, alright. Just asking.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and scooped up a puppy that went by her. “Are you going to adopt one?” She asked.

“Not if it’s going to be anything like your pet. Isn’t it supposed to be an indoor helper?”

Pepper put the dog down, then faced the direction Clint was looking. “What?”

“Why is he going towards the tank?”

“Clint, what in the world-”

Pepper turned to see Dummy bounding across the grass at full speed. She sighed. "He'll calm down in a second. Someone probably left doors open."

She and Clint watched patiently as the bot rolled around chirping.

Clint shrugged at the spectacle and bent down to pet the dog again. "I'm going to call you 'Lucky'." He told it. "But I can't take you home so don't get any ideas."

"I think he's calming." Pepper informed him, watching Dummy closely.

The bot slowed to a stop, the swing his camera around. After two full circles, he stopped and made excited chirping noises as he focused on Tony in the dunk tank.

The machine charged.

"That isn't right." Pepper said under her breath when she realize the machine had no intention of stopping. "Something is wrong."

Pepper ran towards the dunk tank screaming at people to move as Dummy got closer and closer. Clint scrambled to follow.

Tony, oblivious to everything, waved once at Pepper, then was thrown over the glass windshield of the tank as his creation made impact. He crumpled when he hit the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

Pepper shoved the last few people out of her way. "Clint, call 911."

She didn't wait for his response.

"Don't move him!" Pepper yelled at the cloud forming. "Get out of my way"

She squatted over the unmoving, bloody body and remembered what her mother had told her to do in any emergency. She did a quick check of his pulse.

He was alive.

"They said to apply pressure to any head wounds!" Clint shouted to Pepper.

Pepper very lightly ran her hand methodically through his hair, checking after each imaginary row her hand went down for blood. "I think he's not bleeding from there."

"Then find where all that's coming from." Clint replied.

"I can't move his body to get his shirt off!" Pepper yelled at him in frustration. "Someone give me scissors or a pocket knife."

No one in the crowd moved.

Pepper looked up and away from Tony, eyes wild with desperation. "One of you has to have something!"

Someone yelled that they would check the house and sprinted off.

Pepper took a moment to try and find where the bleeding was coming from without being able to see his skin, but the water spread the redness everywhere, and Pepper prayed it was dilution exaggerating the amount of fluid loss.

Something howled.

What the hell? Pepper glared at the crowd.

Lucky the dog trotted through the group and licked Pepper's hand, sitting respectfully next to Tony.

"Clint?"

"I didn't have time to close the door. Ambulance about one minute out."

"Here." A pair of scissors was shoved into Pepper's hands. She cut the shirt in two and pushed away the fabric.

It was the first time she had seen Tony’s chest in years. The scarring from his implant was worse than she remembered.

All around his arc reactor were old thick cuts, shiny from their scar tissue. The reactor itself glowed blue like nothing had ever happened. The crowd was whispering louder and louder as they caught a glimpse.

There was one long thin cut on his right side that was doing the most of the bleeding, Pepper noticed when she looked away from his previous injury. There were also a few minor glass cuts along his torso.

She began applying pressure to the long one when Lucky whimpered, then barked.

The EMTs shoved through the crowd and shooed Lucky away. They were all barking orders, except for one.

“Virginia?” The medical official said. “Oh god. What happened.”

Pepper began to cry as her mom reached out to hug her.

“I was on duty when we got the call. I heard the address.” She told her daughter. “Tell me what you’ve already checked.”

Pepper choked on her sobs, the adrenaline leaving her body only making her emotions worse.

“Is he breathing and have circulation?”

Pepper nodded yes.

“Did you check his head?”

She nodded again.

“Head wound?”

She shook no.

“Concussion?”

Pepper bawled her lip, becoming more upset. She shrugged her shoulders.

“Check for concussion!” Pepper’s mom spoke loudly for her team, the hugged her daughter again. “Virginia, listen, it’s going to be okay. Did you treat for shock?”

Pepper stumbled towards her mom, taking sharp breaths through each sob. “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Her mom yelled at the team again, and Pepper saw them elevate his legs a few inches.

Lucky reproached the scene, rubbing against Pepper’s leg, and she calmed down just the slightest while petting him, unable to look away from her best friend, and everything seemed to fade away around her.

The squeaking of the gurney that Pepper knew was for Tony began to bring her back.

“I’m going to go with him.” Pepper murmured. “Clint? Can you get Tash to take over?”

Clint came closer to Pepper so he wouldn’t have to yell. “Definitely, but I think the dogs may have already taken over.”

“Clint, I can’t deal with jokes right now.”

“No. I mean really. Look at the Storm kid struggle. Not so cool now.”

Pepper wiped her eyes and saw that the entire group of dogs from the petting zoo had mobbed the burger stand, and Johnny Storm was not pleased about it. He was trying to shoo the dogs away from his barbeque, which only wound up the animals more. They began to jump against the grill, trying to knock burgers off it. Other kids tried to shoo them, but the dogs were relentless.

One ran around Johnny, and jumped up, knocking him into his own fire, and his shirt caught.

“Fuck.” Clint and Pepper both said at the same time.

The sophomore on fire began to flail around, and knocked into his second grill as the dogs topples the first. A rope holding down the canopy began to smoke.

“Where are you fire extinguishers?” Pepper’s mom yelled at her.

Pepper searched her mind desperately. “I don’t.. we didn’t… I don’t know. We told them to bring their own!”

Her mom ran towards the scene, yelling into her walkie talkie, pausing just long enough to order Pepper to get into the ambulance with Tony before it leaves. “I have this under control!”

Pepper started following Tony in his gurney, when in the corner of her eye, saw Dummy slowly rolling next to her, camera down in shame, and chirps sad sounding. “JARVIS?” Pepper called out.

“Yes, Ms. Potts?”

“How do I shut him down?”

****  
  


As the ambulance began moving, Pepper watched her carnival spiral into chaos, believing every word of her mom’s assurance. But before they turned the corner, putting the affair out of view, she watched the other canopies catch fire, and collapse on top of everything and everyone who didn’t realize they needed to run fast enough.

She took Tony’s cold limp hand. “I hope your PR people are as good as you said they are.”

****  
  


"Pep?" Tony began to stir. "I told you I only like oxygen masks in Vegas."

Pepper ran a hand through Tony's hair. "I know."

"Is my dad here?"

Pepper shook her head, throat feeling too swollen to speak.

"Thank god."

The EMT politely touched Pepper's shoulder to move her away. "Mr. Stark? We have to ask you some routine questions, alright? Just to know how bad your concussion may be."

Tony rolled his eyes.

"What is your name?"

"Tony."

"And last?"

Tony pulled off his nasal cannula. "You just said it!"

Pepper swatted Tony's hand. "Keep it on!" She choked out.

Tony pushed the cannula back into his nose with a spiteful glare.

"Then I'm sure you'll have no problem answering." The EMT ignored the skirmish.

"Stark. Tony Stark. It's a Friday and, no. I don't know the exact date because I really don't care and that's what phones are for. I'm fifteen, a senior in high school, ten toes, ten fingers, and heart that beats on the..."

Pepper watched her best friend's eyes bulge as he looked at his chest.

He touched the metal. "I'm sure that there is an explanation for that. Until then, I think I'm going to quietly pass out."

Pepper ran her hand through his hair again. "Did my mom brief you on his... device?"

"We gave him an extra dose of anticoagulation medicine already to balance his transfusion. We do need to stitch his side still, however, as well as a CAT scan to check for bleeding of the brain."

"I'm up. I'm up," Tony struggled against gravity to move his head. "Where were we?"

****  
  


"So your head looks fine." Pepper told Tony. "Good job being thrown over the glass instead of through."

"If you would have let me wear my suit we wouldn't be here right now." He teased.

The guilt hit her square in the chest. "Don't. Don't try to shift blame right now."

Tony quirked a brow. "I'm missing something. Spill."

“I already shut Dummy down.”

“I figured. But also, to his credit, it’s a failsafe that he returns to me when his code breaks, and not his fault that his speed limitations was one of the bugs.”

Pepper nodded.

“That’s not what’s bothering you, is it?” Tony pressed.

Pepper fought her urge to cringe. "Don't worry about it."

The young inventor began to reach into his pocket. "Should I just look it up?"

"You're a fool if you think I don't have your phone right now, on silent, to keep the sharks at bay."

"Hah!" He pointed. "So it's a PR thing. Are you Facebook official now then?"

Pepper looked back at the CAT scan results and wondered what was worth telling him. "No."

"Are we Facebook official?"

"As what?"

"How should I know?"

Pepper ran a hand through her hair. It was nice to know that Tony was fine, but at the same time, she was exhausted by trying to keep him occupied. The last thing she needed was to verbally spar when so much was already happening.

“I told Natasha that I love her.” Pepper dropped.

Tony’s eyebrows shot upward. “That takes sack, Potts. Did she say it back? Wait no, did you really mean it? Both. Tell me both.”

“I meant it.” Pepper closed her eyes. “But I wish I hadn't said it.”

“Come here.” Tony beckoned.

Pepper walked over to her friend.

Tony leaned in close to her. “This is what happens when you give the Russians key intel.”

Pepper cringed, actually considering the building conspiracy about a Russian assassin program for a moment after all that had gone on in the past twenty four hours.

Birds began chirping shrilly, snapping her out of her thoughts "Did you change my ringtone?"

Tony shrugged. "Probably."

She checked the caller ID. It was Clint. "I need to take this."

****  
  


"Is Natasha with you?" Clint sounded out of breath.

"Hey Clint. And no." Pepper left Tony's room, shutting the door behind her. All around were nurses walking briskly and bells going off.

"Fuck." Clint responded. A door slammed.

The phone beeped twice. Call ended.

Pepper stared at her home screen.

****  
  


"What was that about?" Tony sat up, winced, and sunk back down. He adjusted his pillow instead.

Pepper clicked her phone off and jammed it in her back pocket. "Nothing."

Tony tried sitting up again, and failed just the same. "You sure?"

"Yes." Pepper told with conviction.

"Nothing about dogs and a fire or anything?"

Pepper knew her face must have clenched up in surprise , because Tony had begun to swear incessantly. She looked around for any hidden electronics, and cursed herself when she saw the TV on, covering the wreckage.

A nurse peaked into the room at all the noise.

“It’s an alternative to the penis game that we like to play called ‘Swear Your Heart Out.’” Tony bluntly lied to the man.

He rolled his eyes and left. Pepper shut the door behind him.

“Pepper, if i had any sense of balance right now I would come over their and jump on your feet so hard!”

Pepper stormed over to his bedside. “Like I was trying for that to happen?”

“But clearly you were too focused on me to try and stop it!” Tony yelled at her. “What the hell?”

“You have no idea.” Pepper snapped. “You have no idea what it looked like.”

“I think I do, considering I just saw it on film.”

Pepper looked up at the replay on the screen of everything going wrong. She leaned against Tony’s cot. “We were already in the ambulance when things got bad. There was nothing I could do there, so I focused on what I could.”

“They don’t have a full head count yet on the humans.” Tony informed her.

Pepper looked at him curiously. “So they got all the dogs?”

“All counted for and happy as ever.”

Pepper let out a small laugh. “I guess that’s good.”

Tony waited a beat. “So, what did Clint say, then?”

“I don’t know.”

****  
  


They were in the hospital until Pepper’s mom came back to the hospital and told her to bring Tony back to their house; the hospital needed the space to check for injuries on others in the accident.

Pepper guided him to her room slowly so that he didn’t fall again like he did back in the parking lot. He said the vertigo was gone, but Pepper could see it was still present enough to disturb his walking.

She let him take her bed, and she set up the pull out for herself.

They didn’t dare turn on the TV.

Downstairs, Pepper laid on the couch and stared at the ceiling. She felt her lip quiver and chided herself for being so helpless. There was nothing she could have done. Except put fire extinguishers in every booth. Except close the dog gate. Except veto the dunk tank. Except fix Dummy. Except put security in the lab. Except, except, except.

Everything felt so out of control.

Pepper felt her breathing quicken as tears began to roll. She couldn't do anything. She was useless. All she can do is take care of Tony and she already did that.

But at least she was helping one person, no matter how small that was in the scope. She set two alarms to wake her up during the night so she could check in Tony, then walked back into her room and gently climbed onto the pull out.

Her messages were climbing, texts having swarmed in throughout the day. The little red number was larger than ever, and more intimidating than anything else Pepper had ever encountered on her phone. Pepper reluctantly opened the app.

Most of the messages were from people asking if she was alright, and while she smiled at their concern, she swept past until she arrived at Clint's name.

Clint -> Pepper: Six hours ago: Do you know where Tasha was?

Three hours ago: She's not at the hospital right? Let me know.

Thirty minutes ago: Has she texted you at all?

Pepper -> Clint: Is there anything you need me to do?

Clint -> Pepper: Come to Stark's and help me search.


	10. Chapter 10

When Pepper arrived, the evidence of catastrophe was

Overwhelming.

Search dogs, service people, classmates and teachers were all searching through the crushed area looking for the few missing counts.

Fury was speaking to the chief of police and head of the fire department about where the fire had originated. None of them looked pleased.

Clint's frame came into view as he emerged from the farthest side of the background. Pepper headed towards him, glancing at the broken glass and surrounding mud. Dummy was next to the mess, shut down completely still, and looking busted in the back. The impact and water most likely fried his circuit there.

"Hey." Pepper gently greeted Clint.

"I can't find her." Clint greeted back, voice frantic, and hands shaking just the slightest. "Not even a clue."

"We're going to find her." Pepper assured him.

Clint stared at the ground, then reached out and hugged Pepper tightly. She wrapped her arms around him as well.

The archer began to shake as small sobs were let out. "I saw her running towards the fire, and I yelled and then she was gone. I couldn't do anything."

He let go of Pepper and wiped his eyes. "Sorry. Fuck. Sorry. I'm just really glad you here."

"Do we at least know she wasn't under anything when..." Pepper couldn't bring herself to say what happened. The guilt was overwhelming.

"She was evacuating people. She could have been anywhere when it happened." Clint told her, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "And her family doesn't exactly have the best track record with these things."

Pepper looked at her distraught friend, and found comfort in knowing they were feeling similar pain. "What do you mean?"

"Her parents? The dead ones." Clint spitefully laughed. "They died in a collapsed building from a fire."

Pepper felt her stomach drop. “Are you serious?”

“I‘m too tired to joke.”

The emotions were overwhelming. Pepper thought of all the horrible things that could have happened. Was Natasha crushed? Suffocated by the smoke? Every horrible thought was a punch to the gut. “Go lay down for a bit.” Pepper slowed her breathing to try and calm down. “I’ll be right back.”

****  
  


She felt the tears begin to fall slowly as she made it through the door. By the time she had reached Tony’s bathroom, her face was unmistakably blotchy, and the facepaint had melted into a saddening puddle of color all over her cheeks.

Pepper grabbed a makeup remover towelette Tony kept in the bottom drawer for when she needed to stay overnight in the package with her name on it, and began scrubbing her face with it. The color came off, but without foundation and face paint, her face was even blotchier.

“Oh, god,” She whispered to herself. “I’m useless.”

There was a knock, and Pepper spun around. In the doorway stood Rhodey with a concerned look. “Do you need chocolate, or space? Or both. There’s always both.”

“Did I really make that much of a scene?” Pepper asked. She got a new towelette and started working on her smeared mascara.

Rhodey opened a drawer and shook his head at the contents within. “No. Steve asked me to get extra blankets for those still searching.”

“It’s too dark.”

“He said there’d also be flashlights. Not holding up so well?” The pilot in training lowered the top cover on the toilet and took a seat.

Pepper ran the water and cooled her face with it. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“Pepper, we’re going to find Natasha.” Rhodey assured her.

Pepper’s eyes widened at the words. “When? Tonight? Tomorrow? There was a fire, Rhodey.”

“If everyone else got out or found, so did she or so she will too.” He said. “I know it.” He got up from the seat and opened the drawer closest. He reached far into the back, then tossed Pepper a bag with her name followed by EMERGENCY on it. “Tony also told me to give you this.”

Pepper smiled as the bag showed to contain hair ties, lipstick, chocolate, an airplane sized bottle of wine, and rose scented hand lotion. “Thank you.”

She dug further through the pouch, pulling the hair ties out to choose a color, and looking for the dark chocolate. She skimmed the bottom with her hand and felt paper.

Professional, on track, collected.

I will get through this. Pepper told herself. I will get through this.

****  
  


“They cleared the wreckage. She’s not under anything.” Pepper prodded Clint’s sleeping body. “Where have you not checked?"

“Mmm?” The boy rolled over. “I’ll come with you. How long was I out?”

Pepper shrugged. “An hour or so.”

"I haven't checked our apartment."

Pepper jingled the keys to her car.

****  
  


The apartment was dark and quiet when they stepped through the door. The room smelled of rose, and Pepper felt it in her gut something wasn't right.

"Tash!" Clint called out. He looked in front of the couch, then turned towards the kitchen.

Pepper slowly observed the place, feeling along the walls for a light switch. The stillness of the atmosphere had a claustrophobic effect, and PEpper felt like the scent of rose was slowly suffocating her. Every shadow looks like a person, and the smell. It smelled so strong. Pepper’s hand slid over a bump on the wall, and she flipped the light on.

“Turn it off, shes not here.” Clint snapped at her from the kitchen. Pepper saw the blotchiness of his tear stained face for the first time.

“Yes, she is.” Pepper told him. “Or, she was. Something doesn’t feel right.”

Clint sighed. “That just what it feels like when you can’t find someone you’re close to. Ignore it.” He pulled a water bottle from the fridge and began guzzling the liquid down.

“Can’t you smell that she was here?”

Clint wiped his mouth. “Stop it, Pepper.”

Pepper felt so helpless against Clint’s intense stare. “You didn’t even check her room!”

“I don’t need to!” He yelled at her, throwing the water bottle onto the counter. “You think I don’t want to find her? You think I’m going to half ass this again?”

Pepper hesitated. “You've done this before?”

Clint stormed towards Pepper and angrily flipped the lights off. “Yes. My brother left, and what your feeling now is fake. Everything is normal here and you are letting yourself be fooled. It’s time to cut the shit.”

A small light began to glow from Clint. He looked at Pepper, then desperately pulled it out.

Natasha -> Clint: Natxha and i wsr T the fum. Meet is there

Pepper took the phone from Clint. “Do you have the tracker app?” She flicked through his screen, searching desperately. Everything seemed to blend together on the small device when she needed things to stand out most.

“Already tried it.” Clint snatched his phone back and locked it pointedly.

Pepper looked at him incredulously. “Her phone is on now. It’ll work.”

He groaned, then unlocked it and sifted through his apps. Two screens passed, then he went into a folder and started up the app. “Russian spy my ass. Not with these passwords,” He mumbled, thumbs just blurs as he typed in the characters. “Go start the car.” He told Pepper as the tracker began to run.

“Where is she?” Pepper called to him as she rushed out of the room to the stairs.

Clint followed her, never lifting his eyes from the phone. “Close. Take a right out of the lot.”

Pepper threw the car into gear, only remembering to buckle up once they were on the road. “Thank you for calling me.” She told Clint.

“Yeah. Thanks for coming.” Clint paused. “Left at the light.”

Pepper merged into the turn lane with ease. No other cars were around.

“How’s Tony?” Clint asked quietly. “Right, up here.”

“Asleep.” Pepper made the turn. “Now what?”

“Left.” Clint pointed.

Pepper slapped the wheel. “I’ve been here. I came from the other direction before.”

Clint unbuckled, ready to jump out. “Should I be worried?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know.” Pepper threw the car into park and stared through the large dark windows. The place was empty, all mats and punching bags put away at Fogwell’s Gym. They got out of car. “Try the door.”

Clint grabbed the door handle with both hands and yanked. Nothing budged. “Motherfucker!”

Pepper grabbed the door herself, pulling as hard as she could. “Shit.” She pulled it again, to no avail. “Call her.”

Clint ignored Pepper, and started slamming on the gym’s glass panes to the left of the door like a madman. “Fucking let us in!” He screamed at the dark building.

It didn’t take long for the door in the back that had led to the showers to open, light spilling out of the crack. Clint began baninging harder, and Pepper felt her heart increasing in pace, especially as she saw the red hair.

Her excitement began to drop when she realized the hair did not belong to Natasha, but Matt Murdock.

It dropped even more, and turned to anger, as she realized he was holding Natasha’s phone, and had blood stains on his clothes.

Clint yanked at the door again as Matt took his time walking over. “Motherfucker.” Clint whispered incessantly.

As the boy got closer, Pepper focused on his eyes, uncovered from his usual sunglasses. The scarring around them was a little unsettling, not to mention the chill blue of his eyes that held steady straight ahead as though he could actually see her.

Matt waited until Clint let go of the door to open it towards himself. “It’s a push.” The ginger told them.

“Fuck off.” Clint pushed him aside, rushing inside to the door that Matt initially came through. “She in here?”

“Hopefully sleeping, so be quiet.” He replied. “And that one’s a pull, in case you were wondering.”

Clint flipped him off and went inside, disappearing into the light, and leaving Pepper in the dark.

“You got my text.” Matt asked and gestured to a bench near them.

Pepper moved to sit down on it, feeling light headed from the night’s mystery. “You could call it a text. Thank you.”

“I’m sure it was. She wanted me to let Clint know she was fine.”

“Is she?”

Matt paused. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Pepper scooted closer to the him, heart feeling heavy. “Matt, I need you to tell me. I’m not Clint, I can handle it.”

“I found her with her leg stuck under some rubble, and cuts here and there. People were everywhere, and no one would tell me where help was because they were too busy getting help for themselves, so I carried her back here. I didn’t want her walking until I knew if her leg was broken. But there was no swelling or bruising, and she wasn’t making any noises of pain.”

“That could be adrenaline.” Pepper interjected.

“It took me twenty to get back here.” Matt deflected her. “It wasn’t. We patched up the cuts, and then she fell asleep for a couple of hours.”

Pepper felt the anger building up inside her. “And there was no way you could have called earlier?” She snapped.

“Take out your phone.” Matt told her, and Pepper did. “Now close your eyes, put in your password, and make a text to a specific contact that is randomly somewhere in a list that could be of any length.”

Pepper bit her lip. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“I had to wait for her to wake up and at least put it on the right contact. By the time I realized it was a text and not a call, she was out again.“

“How did you find your way back here?”

Matt got up. “Landmarks. Do you want to go see her?”

****  
  


“Did everyone get out?” Was the first thing Natasha asked when Pepper walked into the small locker room.

Natasha was sitting in a heap of blankets, nested on the cement ground. She looked so small, and the white bandages adjourned on her face stood out against the swirled colors of her messed up facepaint.

“Yeah.” Pepper told her, afraid to get closer. “You did a good job.”

“Don’t ever do that ever again.” Clint interrupted. “Fuck, I’m so glad you’re fine.”

“Did he cry for me?” Natasha asked Pepper with a weak smile, ignoring Clint.

Pepper smiled at her playfulness. “A little.”

“I was upset about the possibility of having to pay full rent. I’m not made of cash.” Clint managed to joke.

Natasha began to get up, and all three teens rushes to her aid. “I’m fine” She told them, getting up faster to demonstrate. “Just some cuts.”

“Your face paint is all messed up too.” Pepper gently told her.

“Thank you.” Natasha responded. “Can I go home now?”

****  
  


“This isn’t home.” Natasha groaned as Pepper pulled up to the suburban home. “This is your home.”

“My mom is a nurse.” Pepper told her. “When she gets home, I want her to check you.”

“Clint?” Natasha rested her head on him. “Please, can we go home.”

Clint nuzzled her head like a cat rubbing its head on its owner. “This is what you get for playing hero.”

She groaned again, but let Clint walk her into the house.

“There’s a pull out up in my room.” Pepper told them. “You guys can share it. Just be quiet. Tony’s sleeping.”

Clint nodded and headed upstairs.

“Where will you be?” Nat reached out for the taller girl.

“I think I’ll just stay down here, incase anything else comes up.”

Natasha gave Pepper’s wrist the smallest of tugs. “It’s three AM. Nothing else is going to come up.”

“Just incase.” Pepper whispered. “Sleep tight.”

Natasha let go and smiled. Pepper waited for her to say something, but the younger girl simply turned around, and quietly trailed up the stairs.

Pepper grabbed some fresh pajamas out of the dryer in the back room, and moved to the sofa after changing, ever thankful for its comfiness. There was no moon to shine through the window, no stars to gaze at. Just the light polluted, black sky. She heard the creaking of the pull out upstairs, and then the whole house went silent. Pepper focused on relaxing her muscles, tense form the stress of everything going on, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

****  
  


It was the movement that first woke Pepper, she realized a while later. But in the moment, Pepper just registered a blanket being tossed onto her curled up body, and something much warmer putting itself next to her.

“Mm?” Pepper mumbled to the body. She scooted towards the inside of the couch to make more room. The blanket and body trailed with her.

She felt and arm loop around her waist, and hair smelling of rose tickle her nose. “They don’t shut up.”

Pepper smiled at the sleepy, feminine voice. “Are Tony and Clint awake?” She whispered.

“No.” Natasha told her, and Pepper could tell from the other girl’s soft breath how close she was. “They talk in their sleep. I think they’re having a conversation about chicken nuggets.”

“Tony hates those.” Pepper felt her smile widen.

“Clint loves them.” Natasha replied. “Thank you for helping him find me.”

Pepper reached up and ran her hand through Natasha’s hair. “I’m just glad to know you were never really lost.”

“I came down here to let you know that I...” Natasha paused. “I’m really glad I volunteered for your committee. Even if you made my blow off class to do copious amounts of work.”

“I think it was pretty worthwhile,” Pepper joked. “And if it wasn’t, it would be my pleasure to make it up to you somehow.” She grabbed Natasha’s wrists and pulled her in close, kissing her forehead.

Natasha took the closeness as an opportunity to whisper into the taller girl’s ear. “Your mom won’t be home today, right?”

Pepper blushed. “If she’s not home already, she probably crashed at the hospital, and will go straight into her next shift when she wakes up.” She whispered back.

Natasha’s thumb swept over the inside of Pepper’s wrist, gently tickling the sensitive skin. “I’m looking forward to you making up this horrible experience to me later, then.

“At the homecoming hang?” Pepper asked.

Pepper felt cold lips press onto the side of her lips. “I know we made a promise to everyone that we would do that.” Pepper felt the coldness again, and this time adjusted to meet them, until Natasha pulled away. “Is there anyway we could veto that?”

“I don’t think the vice president has that executive power, Nat. You might have to file with Tony.” The ginger deadpanned.

“Well, consider this then: The dance will probably be cancelled, as the school can’t afford any more liabilities, and people would be fools to show up anyway, which means you need something to wear that dress too, and I’m not sure its the kind you wear when playing drinking games.”

“What is it for, in your opinion, then?” Pepper curiously prodded, careful not to get her hopes up.

Natasha hesitated. “Could it be for me?”

Pepper scrunched her nose. “No.” She ran her hand along Natasha’s side. “But these PJs could be.”

“Fancy.” Natasha pulled at the hem of Pepper’s top. “Thank you.”

“Can I have yours?” Pepper asked, tugging the strap of what felt like a camisole.

“Absolutely not.” Natasha cuddled up even closer to Pepper. “You’re not my size. My pants will fit you like floods.”

Pepper brushed a stray hair from Nat’s face. “You’re right. That was a ridiculous request.”

“Almost as ridiculous as me asking you to cancel the party?”

“I’d like at least one event we’ve planned to go off well.”

Natasha glared at Pepper with a pout.

Pepper quirked her hair, and stared back.

“Fine.” The younger girl gave in. “You have a lock on your door, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Natasha rolled over and spooned her back to Pepper. “Goodnight.”

Pepper put her arms around Natasha in and pulled her close. “Night.” She breathed into her hair.

****  
  


“Natasha, move!”

Pepper woke to a start.

“Pep, I thought I was your little spoon!”

The class officer rubbed her eyes, the room slowly coming into focus. She felt the warmth of Natasha’s body disappear, and then two hand on her back, shoving her off the couch.

The floor met her back hard, and she groaned.

Tony’s eyes peered at her from the couch. “Roll me on my back, Clint.”

Pepper got up, still discombobulated from the abrupt awakening. “Tony, you can’t be down here.” She scolded her injured friend, now lying on his stomach, on her spot on the couch.

“I can be carried,” He reasoned.

She fussed with her hair, all knotted from the night. ‘Why did Tony insist on being last to bed and early to rise?’ She wondered. “Did you take your meds?”

“Yes,” Clint flipped the inventor as he answered for him, the reconsidered. “No. Where are they?”

“Upstairs,” Pepper rolled her shoulder. “Clint can you grab them?”

The archer was practically jumping. “On it!”

“Why am I awake?” Natasha’s voice cracked with grogginess.

“Par-tay!” Tony yelled. “Clint and I are setting up!”

“You have stitches in your side, and a concussion,” Pepper sat down next to Natasha on the floor, their knees touching. “You are so not.”

“Yes we are!” Clint yelled, bounding down the stairs. “And you two are leaving!”

Natasha rested her head on Pepper’s shoulder, her eyes opening and closing. “Make them stop.”

“Don’t be such an anti-morning person, Tash.” Clint goaded.

“Night person.” Tony corrected him.

“Whatever.” The blond flippantly responded.

Pepper absentmindedly kissed the top of Natasha’s sleepy head. “What do you mean we’re leaving.”

Tony’s arm accusingly pointed at Pepper. “You two have been dating without a single date for almost three weeks.”

“We have spent plenty of time together. You are not staying here with just Clint.”

“Pepper.” Clint rested his arms on the back of the couch. “When I was in the circus…”

“You were in the circus for one week,” Natasha mumbled.

“When I was in the circus for one week, I learned two important things: How to take care of the injured, and how to party.”

Natasha looked up from her sleepy haze. “You were the injured and it was from the party.”

“Exactly.”

“Please, Pepper, I can supervise!” Tony pleaded.

“No.”

“Please.”

“No. What time is it?”

“Ten. Virginia, come on.”

“No. Don’t call me that.”

“Vermont.”

“Tony, stop it.”

“Delaware. Clint, name another state for me?”

Clint paused. “Massachusetts?”

“Massachusetts, come on.”

“You know what?” Pepper shook her head. “Fine. Clint, you can carry him to the hospital when he loses a stitch and passes out from panicking.”

Clint fist bumped Tony. “We stole your phone from the charger and planned everything out for you. It’s going to be great. Also, Here’s makeup remover. You’re a mess.” He tossed makeup remover to both the girls, and they did their best to get all of her facepaint off. Natasha looked more than irritated about it.

“And everything is paid for.” Tony added. “Just kidding. Guess who’s cut off and living at your place for an undetermined amount of time?”

“That guy.” Clint pointed at Tony.

“This guy.” Tony pointed at himself. “But on the bright side, when I got the call cutting me off, I was also told that PR was handling everything, and according to the television, there were only minor injuries.”

Clint tossed Pepper her phone. “Be back by eight. That’s when things will start. Also:” He tossed Pepper some keys. “To the apartment. She’ll want to change.”

“I had Clint pack clothes for you already.” Tony pointed to a small duffle bag. “Don’t worry, everythings in there.”

“You did not have him pick out underwear for me.” Pepper glared at her best friend.

Tony snapped at her like a greaser, not even paying attention to her glare. “Everything and a bra to match!”

Pepper could not believe this was happening. “Okay. Nat, do you want to do this?”

Natasha’s head bobbed, waking her up. “Scavenger hunt? Yes.” She extended her arms to the ceiling to stretch.

She slowly wriggled out from Natasha’s snuggling grip and went to the duffle, slinging it over her shoulder. “I’ll start the car.”

****  
  
  


"What time is it?" Natasha yawned as she buckled her seat belt.

Pepper glanced over at her sleepy girlfriend marveling at the thought that she had ended up with her. "Ten thirty."

"Ugh." Natasha curled her legs up to her chest, and Pepper saw her wince as her legs were touched.

Pepper focused back on the road, but kept thinking about the girl next to her. Her button nose was scrunched into her shoulder, and bright red ponytail a mess. "Your legs should be fine in a week."

Natasha lifted her head. "Thanks."

"Do you want to shower first?" Pepper asked, pulling into the apartment complex's parking lot.

"Nope." Natasha unbuckled, and reached back to grab Pepper's duffel.

Pepper shut the door and locked the car, following the shorter girl, and took a deep breath, focusing only on what was ahead of her.

The door creaked open to the dark apartment and Pepper noted that Clint was right. She didn’t smell any rose at all this time.

Natasha grabbed Pepper's wrist and tugged her into the building, shutting the door with her other hand. Pepper heard the duffel drop and then her back hit the door. Natasha's lips crushed against her's and Pepper grabbed onto her in surprise.

Natasha pulled away. "Shower?"

Pepper ran a hand through her hair. "Do you want to go first now?"

Pepper blushed as Natasha gave a small laugh and pinned her against the door again.

"Pepper Potts." Natasha kissed the taller girl's neck, suckling on her pulse point until Pepper shivered. "I won't force you." She pulled away and began walking down the hall to the bathroom. The sway in her hips was exaggerated, but Pepper was entranced nonetheless. "You are welcome to join if you would like."

Pepper stood in the living room, stunned with the the offer, and, as she noted later, blushing like crazy.

Words seemed incapable of escaping Pepper's mouth as she contemplated the idea of sharing a shower. Images of wet, slick skin, and cold hard tile against her back seemed to speak for her as she made up her mind and trailed after the smaller girl.

Natasha already had the water running for them as Pepper entered the small room. "We're doing this?" Pepper nearly giggled.

"We're doing this." Natasha faced Pepper and pulled her sleep worn shirt over her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ!
> 
> The next chapter is, as you can infer, heavy smut. It is perfectly skippable; you will lose none of the plot. I rated the fic as teen on the basis that it could be completely skipped, and would be by anyone not seeking this kind of writing. So, please feel free to or not to read the next chapter based on the kind of content you would like.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ!
> 
> This chapter, as you can infer if you have been reading along, heavy smut. It is perfectly skippable; you will lose none of the plot. I rated the fic as teen on the basis that it could be completely skipped, and would be by anyone not seeking this kind of writing. So, please feel free to or not to read this chapter based on the kind of content you would like.

Pepper moved in on the vulnerable skin and kissed her right above the collarbone as her own shirt was fiddled with. After a few tugs, Pepper simply removed it herself, excited by the way their stomachs brushed.

"Pants?" Natasha said, and Pepper innately knew it wasn't a question.

Pepper unzipped and slid her pajama shorts off in a fluid motion. She felt goosebumps rise as the cool air hit her skin. "How fast does your water run cold?" She grabbed Natasha by the hips, slipping two fingers into the hem of the redhead's panties.

Natasha's hands covered Pepper's and pulled the underwear down. "Fifteen, sixteen minutes."

"That's not long." The strawberry blonde commented.

"Long enough." Natasha reached around Pepper, fingers finding their way to her bra clasp. "May I?"

Pepper pulled Natasha closer by her waist. “You may.” She braced herself for the cold as Natasha pinched the snap to release.

Pepper quickly reciprocated, then pulled aside the curtain to the shower, steam pluming out into the open room. The water was scorching, and Pepper flicked the temperature handle closer to the blue before stepping in, Natasha closely behind.

They immediately huddled beneath the warm spray, untouching, arms crossed, eager to escape the cold air of the rest of the room. For a moment it was like any other shower as they resisted the water shock.

It stopped being a regular shower when Pepper took in Natasha, naked and beautiful next to her, damp red hair darkened by the water into something much deeper, more rich, and utterly gorgeous.

Nerves ran through Pepper as she ran her hands over Natasha’s shoulders, unfamiliar with this new territory. She come up with a new plan, one much more familiar to her, and goaded Natasha to turn around in order for Pepper to properly execute.

Pepper calmly began to knead her girlfriend's shoulders, carefully squeezing the tension out of the taut muscles. Natasha sighed responding well to Pepper’s plan, and was running her hand along her own stomach down to her outer thighs in an expression of pleasure as Pepper moved to massage the rest of her back.

The small sighs and facial expressions Natasha made as Pepper worked her hands were the most heart tugging and leg quivering things Pepper had ever witnessed. Every moment stood out like a moment frozen in time, the water slicking off of their backs, and steam floating away.

“The water’s going to go cold.” Natasha sighed, lost in touch.

The readhead rolled her shoulder blades, adjusting to the relaxes muscles after the extensive massage and turned around, facing Pepper. She grabbed a bottle off of the soap shelf and carefully squeezed out a quarter sized portion of the rose scented gel.

Pepper melted as she felt Natasha press into her, and massage it onto her scalp.

“I always loved the smell of this stuff.” Pepper told her. “Reminds me of you now.”

“Smells better on you.” Natasha dropped a kiss to Pepper’s shoulder, soapy hands trailing down the slope of her neck from Pepper’s hair, massaging the muscles as they traveled, then back up to her hair.

Pepper absorbed the moment. She felt her body practically humming with contentment. It was a mix of warmth, sweet scent, the sounds of water hitting porcelain, and lust, that lulled her into the perfect bliss. When the hands disappeared from her head, it took a few moments to register, the water giving the heat that went missing from hands.

Pepper tilted her head back and began to rinse the suds from her strawberry blonde hair methodically, starting her hands at the roots, and running them through to the tips.

When the hands returned, one was filled with body wash. Pepper looked down and watched as the bubbles were left behind every hand movement. Up from her torso, in the valley between her breasts, a kiss to her shoulder, then back down over the two sensitive mounds. Pepper reached behind her, grabbing onto the shorter girl's hip for support.

Natasha continued to relentlessly work her hands around Pepper's body. Pepper was counting breaths to not seem as turned on as she was as Natasha washed her outer thighs and calves. The nimble hands swept over Pepper's buttox with a squeeze, and Pepper felt her core tightened.

"Fuck" the four letter word fell from her lips.

The shorter girl began to spoon Pepper, her pressing up against Pepper’s soapy back and hands wandering to her girlfriend’s navel. Pepper pressed back, her breath catching as she felt her breasts cupped and covered, the warm sensation fleeting as the hands moved to other places, all leaving as quickly as they came. Small squeezes here and there, along with the faint scratching of nails across her skin left red marks, and Pepper basked in the feral idea that she had been claimed.

Pepper also basked growing discomfort between her legs and incessant grinding against her spooner when Natasha whispered in her ear “Isn’t this much more efficient for getting clean?”

The taller girl turned around, facing Natasha, suds washing off her back from exposure to the spray. “I don’t know. How much longer until you think the water goes cold?”

Natasha walked forward until she was pushed flush against her girlfriend once more. “Let’s rinse off, take this elsewhere, and never find out.”

****  
  


The comforter Pepper found herself being flung on was the same one she first encountered when they partook on their recruiting spree. The difference this time was that it wasn’t on the rock hard couch, in the cold living room, in the middle of the afternoon. It was on a squishy, comfy bed, in Natasha’s small, cozy room, in the middle of the day.

Natasha’s bedroom was nothing like she imagined. Though her comforter was red and black, the walls were a warm off white, and decor of mostly natural wood.

The ceiling was unpainted, Pepper was able to note while she was on her back.

The purple towel wrapped around her was pushed up as Natasha spread Pepper’s legs and ran her hands down them. “Do you still want this?”

“Yes.” Pepper told her, tilting her head forward to look at the redhead who she trusted so much, and despite everything screaming at her not to because of the disaster when confessed, loved.

Natasha kissed the inside of the taller girl’s thigh. “What kind of protection do you want to use?”

Pepper froze. “I have no idea.”

Natasha gently ran a finger up Pepper’s inner thigh. “Wait here.”

The strawberry blond watched as Natasha briskly walked to the room across from her’s, towel hiding the curves Pepper knew were there. She squirmed as she heard rustling and a drawer slam in the other room, legs feeling like they were made of lead, and center ached to be touched. Pepper closed her legs, pressure from her thighs easing some of the eagerness, and her hand skimmed her breasts, nipples hard from being aroused.

Natasha returned, putting a sheet of condoms on the bed stand. She ripped one off, and placed it on the end of the bed, on top of a red throw blanket, then resettled between Pepper’s legs.

Natasha started by slipping her hand beneath Pepper’s towel, slowly working her arm up and across the taller girl’s stomach, unraveling the towel covering her.

Pepper felt her pupils re-dilate as Nat’s own towel began to drop off as she climbed up her bed, legs balanced on either side of Pepper, perfectly toned, and breasts perfectly poised for an amazing view.

Natasha’s hand threaded through Pepper’s hair as the younger girl began to suckle on Pepper’s more sensitive skin. Her lips made contact with the lower base of Pepper’s left breast, then released, her tongue then protruding as she leaned back in. Pepper sighed as her girlfriend licked her way up to her areola, then used the tongue to flick her nipple gently before taking the whole area into her warm, wet mouth.

The hand once tucked in Pepper’s hair moved to her unoccupied breast, tweaking the sensitive area.

Pepper used her hands to push Natasha’s towel completely off her, and took advantage of the newly exposed skin. They encircled the smaller girl’s smooth, soft, warm back, fingers clenching and unclenching with each shortened breath and clenched lower muscles, and Pepper couldn’t stop smiling.

But the aching between Pepper’s legs had grown even stronger, and Pepper finally gave in, her right hand leaving Natasha’s back, and quickly finding her own warm, wet center.

Just as Pepper began giving herself attention, Natasha stopped. She retreated back towards the end of the bed, giving a kiss to Pepper’s hip, and then grabbing the aluminum square that had been set aside.

There was only a quick moment of appreciating the use of the condom to cover fingers before Natasha climbed back onto Pepper, her lips giving a heated kiss to Pepper’s at the top of the bed. Two of her fingers carefully slid up her slit.

Pepper arched into the sensation, and Natasha smiled into the strawberry blonde’s neck.

Large, soft circles were traced around Pepper’s clit, and she moaned as they became smaller and harder. Her core tightened, and she felt her arm’s turn to jelly at her side. However, never one to be complacent, Pepper tried to share focus from the burst of pleasure Natasha was giving her by giving back.

Pepper craned her head so that her mouth was against Natasha’s neck, and bit and sucked in the same spot until she heard her partner moan. Pepper made a small sound as well, feeling the attention to her clit shift to her opening.

Her back arched, breast pressing against the girl above her, and only adding to her pleasure as she felt digits within her curl tentatively. She rocked into the motion as it repeated, and added to the attention with her own hand to pay attention to her cliterous.

Natasha kissed Pepper’s neck, wet hair falling across her face, as her fingers continued to work inside the older girl. Pepper used the moment to work herself harder, and felt the shot of pleasure travel from her head to toes as her orgasm washed over her.

She felt herself clench and unclench repeatedly, and her shoulders shook in tandem, every clench feeling like a new burst of endorphins.

Pepper was on cloud nine.

She flipped Natasha over, so that the redhead was beneath her, and allowed her hormones to take over.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Natasha joked as Pepper nipped the girl’s jaw.

“You tell me.” Pepper joked back, thumb brushing Natasha’s hard nipple, and reveling in the face her girlfriend made in response.

The older girl licked a line down the valley of the redhead’s breasts to her navel, then sucked on the corner of her pelvis until it began to turn red. The smell of the hot slickness forming between Natasha’s legs became increasingly apparent. Pepper found herself wondering what tasting that would be like as she felt Natasha intertwined her hand with one of Pepper’s. The junior kissed down one of Natasha’s legs, then back up the other.

As Pepper came back up, she her hand was tugged, and she climbed up the bed until her face was hovering over Natasha’s again. She kissed the other girl’s lips gently. The three words said before were stirring in her mind, and filling her mouth, and Pepper kissed her girlfriend again, harder and longer, to make sure they didn’t come out.

Natasha’s nails ran down the length of Pepper’s back, once again marking her, and Pepper sucked on her earlobe in return letting the pain push down her anxiety over her earlier confession.

“Can I go down on you?” Pepper asked.

“Please.” Natasha laughed. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

“You tell me,” Pepper repeated as she traveled down Natasha’s torso. She paused. “What protection do you want?”

Natasha shrugged. “I don’t really care. Your hands are obviously washed.”

Kneeling between her girlfriend’s legs, Pepper bowed her head, scent of Natasha growing stronger, and began to tongue her.

The warm slickness tasted slightly acidic, she noted as she experienced the textures of Natasha’s depths for the first time. She extended her tongue more, giving it a curl hear and there, reaching up with her hand to massage the external stimulation spots as she got used to her position.

Pepper felt her tongue pass ridges after ridges, then followed up with her finger until a smooth, hard area was found and Natasha’s breathing increased speed. She began to methodically tap the point to the best of her ability, as well as continue to work a bruise onto Natasha’s hip, only pausing to relieve small cramps, and relished in the results.

She noticed how Natasha’s thighs began to quiver around her, sweat beginning to dampen the backs of them. Every once in a while, a small noise of pleasure would escape from the girl’s mouth.

Her own breathing was becoming labored as she spent what felt like hours working her mouth in patterns of swirls and swipes and kisses along Natasha’s stomach and breasts. She went lower and landed a kiss on Natasha’s thigh, then sat up for a moment. When she knelt back down, Natasha’s opening had widened even more, making it near impossible for Pepper to find the smooth area again.

“Getting tired?” Natasha teased.

“Only because I had to help you out in round one,” Pepper countered.

Natasha grabbed her own chest. “You wound me.”

Pepper shrugged, teasingly.

“Come here,” Natasha told her, shaking her head at the retort.

Pepper bit her lip playfully. “Are you sure you don’t want me down here?”

Natasha sat up a titch. “You have long arms. Use them.”

 


	12. Chapter 12

Pepper groaned as her phone rang with marimbas from the bathroom, pulling her out of her post-coital grog in Natasha’s warm, comfy bed. Natasha was curled against her, head resting on her chest, and hair tickling Pepper’s chin, and breaths even.

“Is that a call, or an alarm?” Nat asked.

“Alarm,” Pepper guessed, not actually sure. “Should I get it?”

Natasha kissed Pepper’s chest. “Sure.”

The younger girl rolled off her, and Pepper flipped the covers off.

Disregarding modesty, Pepper made her way to the bathroom and hunted around for her pants. The room was still wet from their exit, and few items had escaped becoming casualty on the floor.

After picking up her bra and placing it on the counter for safe keeping, she noticed her pants kicked behind the door. She grabbed them and found that some parts were more damp than others. Worriedly, she reached into the pocket for her phone.

Pepper let out a sigh of relief when she found it to be dry.

She pressed the home button to see a reminder in all caps:

11:30

Clint, remind me to put something for 12:00 -Tony

“Are we going to do the scavenger hunt thing the boys planned?” Pepper called out to her girlfriend.

“Wasn’t planning on it” Natasha responded. “Are you getting dressed?”

Pepper set her phone down on the bathroom counter. “Mhm.”

She heard the bed rustle and frame creek. Natasha appeared in the doorway. “There’s food in the kitchen, if you want. I’m going to rinse off.”

“Okay,” Pepper fastened her bra. “Hold on.”

“Do you want some fresh clothes?” Natasha asked as her eyes gave Pepper an up-down. “I think I dropped your duffle by the door.”

“That would be great.”

****  
  


“Can I be completely honest with you?” Natasha asked as the pair gazed at a series of paintings, each one a different solid color. It was an exhibit in the far back of the museum they had decided to go to as their first stop on the hunt Tony and Clint supposedly had made.

“Sure,” Pepper squinted at the plaque to see who the artist is.

“I’ve seen this art at Home Depot.”

Pepper stifled a laugh. “Really?”

“The postmodern art section. Right next to the paint cans and roller sponges.”

“And how much did that piece cost?” Pepper jested.

“Free,” Natasha shook her head. “Postmodern art will never cease to amaze me.”

“I kind of love it,” Pepper admitted. “I know a lot of times it’s like this, where some art student was over-funded, but…” She grabbed Natasha’s hand. “Let me show you.”

Pepper dragged her to the next room over. “Soup cans.”

Natasha face squinted in bewilderment.

“The base of it is silk screened,” Pepper continued, “And the names are penciled in. Like it was an assembly line.”

“Very American.” Natasha commented. “This is supposed to create some critique on the repetitious activity of our lives, right? How it creates a loss of meaning?”

Pepper quizzically glanced away from the painting and at her girlfriend, “Did you take art history?”

Natasha stared straight ahead at the display. “Back row, right corner. Fifth period my freshman year. You sat front and center, if I remember correctly.”

Pepper stared, unbelieving that she had sat through a year long class and not taken notice of Nat. Granted, she never talked to anyone in the class, and she did sit at the front, but to not notice someone at all?

A tour group passed, phones all held up by each and every patron. Pepper stepped out of the painting's way.

Natasha waited until the crowd was gone to take out her phone as well. She held it up above her head, tapped it once, and took a selfie with Pepper.

Pepper raised a brow.

"There's a can that says Pepper Pot." Natasha pointed out, changing the topic. Pepper smiled at the single can, and let the conversation taper off into comfortable silence with the rest of the museum patrons.

“I never participated,” Natasha shrugged, breaking their silence. “Someone was always asking questions in the class, so I didn’t see much of a point.”

“I did not ask that many questions.” Pepper defended herself from her girlfriend’s teasing, bumping Natasha’s shoulder with hers. “Maybe once or twice a week.”

“Come here.” Natasha grabbed Pepper’s hand and tugged her to another display. It was of a torn up bed, covered in oil paint and other marks, pillow no exception to the destruction. “‘If we consider Rauschenberg’s work a self-portrait, when the piece doesn’t include himself, why can’t we expand the definition of self-portrait to all works that show intimate emotion?’”

The strawberry blonde blushed, remembering the lesson that day. “How did I never see you?”

“Because I didn’t want you to,” Natasha dropped Pepper’s hand. “Things have changed.”

****  
  


Out of the entire day, it turns out that Tony and Clint actually had one thing solidly and fully planned: food.

“I think,” Pepper turned her phone off and placed it in her pocket. “We have reached our destination.”

Hole in the wall was an understatement in describing the establishment. The sad looking eatery, with its big, yellowed windows and peeling paint, sagged in the city bloom. And the parking lot, still dirt, did it no justice. Pepper parked in the far corner, the only place she was sure was a spot, and tried to feel optimistic towards the building and its contents within.

“It’s dark,” Natasha pointed out, gesturing to the building and removing her feet from the dash to unbuckle her seat belt. “Why did we follow their plan, by the way?”

“Momentary judgment lapse,” Pepper killed the engine. “I’ll Yelp a new place.”

“Don’t.” Pepper felt tingly as Natasha’s cool hands wrapped around her wrist that held her phone. “Hold on a second.”

Natasha intensely focused on the building, and Pepper did her best to zone in as well. It looked bare, and dark. Abandoned. A howling breeze blew by for a moment, and Pepper let out a small “Oh” as the front door waved open from the wind. “I guess it must be open then.”

Natasha got out of the car, “I think I see someone.” She walked over to the outskirt of the lot, where a collection of rocks laid vulnerable. She picked up a few, then handed three to Pepper. “Remember Bucky’s whole talk?”

Pepper accepted the rocks and got out of the car. “You are joking about the Russian mob thing.” She sarcastically, but nervously asked, staying behind her girlfriend.

“Never said it was the Mob.” Natasha commented sternly as the two girls crept along, squatted low, towards the dark looming shack.

Pepper kept her eyes on the building, and her heart picked up pace as she started to think she was seeing movement as well. “Please tell me this a joke?”

“Just stay behind me.”

“You realize this is all windows,” Pepper pointed out in reference to the establishment.

“You’re right. I’ll have them face the other way. Hit the deck.”

Pepper dropped to the ground in trust, her heart rate jumping from the excitement and throat letting out a giggle from thrill and fear, and Natasha launched her three rocks onto the roof. The shrapnel scattered on the side of the roof away from the girls, making three distinct pings on the tin like roof, and the red head sprinted towards the building, pushing through the door in her charge and disappearing into the black. Pepper heard banging and another door slam. Then a light went on.

The older girl slowly got up from the dirt. She dusted herself off with her hand not holding rocks, and jogged after her girlfriend. “Nat?” The door creaked open slowly.

“All clear!” Natasha said. “Empty, actually. But there is a working light.”

“You said you saw people!” Pepper accosted, squinting at the one, dim, hanging bulb.

Natasha shrugged, face flat and serious. “I lied.” She bit her lip for a moment, then released it, taking a breath, and Pepper saw a shift in her demeanor back to how she normally was around her. “Sometimes I lie.” Natasha smiled slightly at her confession.

Pepper play shoved her back, once, twice, three times, as her ears throbbed with the sound of her heart pumping. “I thought we were going to be stabbed. I saw someone moving!” She shoved her again, and Natasha foot bumped with the wall.

“I’m sure you thought and saw a lot of things, Pepper Potts.” Natasha’s tongue poked out of her grin. Her arms made their way firmly around Pepper’s middle.

Pepper leaned in, her forehead pressed to Natasha, and noticed the slightest of cuts along her jaw. “I hate you,” She teased. “And you hurt yourself.”

“I really, really, like you.” Natasha whispered back, hand moving to her own face and wiping at the small cut. “I think I might love you.”

Pepper took the moment in the dim, shoddy, lighting to drink in the sight of the person who two months ago was just the girl with great cheekbones who was best friends to the guy getting a pen cap aimed at. Whenever she was within sight, everything went out of focus that wasn’t her. It was like she distorted the rest of the world until she was at the center of it. Pepper looked at the other girl’s pale face, all soft angles and sharp looks that cut into her heart every time.

She kissed her. She kissed her against the wall until the pounding in her chest was no longer from the physical exertion, or fear, or exhilaration. Until it was a rhythmic soundtrack to the scene that was currently them. Her lips tingled as they cupped Natasha’s, and the warmth of her ever exhale felt like a promise.

“Don’t freak me out like that.” Pepper scolded her.

Natasha pulled one hand away from Pepper’s waist, pushing the older girl lightly on the chest to pause. “This dump better not become our place.” She said with a straight face, eyes piercing into Pepper’s.

“Too late,” Pepper looped a finger through Natasha’s belt. “It’s ours.”

“We still don’t know why Clint and Tony sent us here.” She pointed out.

Pepper untangled herself. “Let’s have a look around then.”

“You go deeper into this room, and I’ll check the kitchen.”

“Is this really a time to split up?” Pepper asked.

Natasha’s eyes flickered to the kitchen. “I think there are rats in there. I saw one when I walked in. Do you really want to deal with that?”

“Understood.” Pepper nodded, and headed the direction opposite from the kitchen.

As she gently trodded along the dusty floor, assessing the surroundings as dreary, damp, and dumpy, she found herself touching her lips again, and trying to ignore the rat defecation.

The effect her girlfriend had on her, how much of a hold was had on her, it almost wasn’t fair. That one person matched her so wholly, in a way that was not only never needed, but also something Pepper didn’t even know she wanted. How could someone fill a gap that wasn’t even there before? It was maddening.

Turning her phone light on for better visibility, Pepper made her way through cobwebs and a musky scent. It was horrible.

She heard a loud thump, and then the clang of a pot against something hard, followed by another thud. “You okay?” Pepper called out to Natasha.

“Just one second!” Natasha yelled back.

Eventually, Pepper noticed a pattern on the floor of feet, and although assuming at first they were hers, she followed them anyway. She heard another thud.

“The rat is taken care of. Nothing else in here. Anything on your end?” Natasha called out.

Pepper found that the footsteps led to a basket of food, all pre-packaged and clearly just straight armed from the cabinets at their apartment, but food nonetheless.

You guys left a mess at the house. Packed you a picnic. Hopefully you got to this before the rats did. Trail down road to right. -Clint.

“Eureka.”

****  
  


Pepper watched the way Natasha moves across the leafy trail, graceful and quiet. Every step seemed so deliberate, so planned, as to make her route the most silent and least disruptive of all the options. It was a stark contrast the Pepper’s herself. Not lacking in grace by any means, she was still leagues behind her girlfriend, with many crackles of snapped twigs and crunched leaves under her slightly mud crusted shoes.

It had been her turn to hold the basket, which was becoming lighter and lighter as they snacked on the chips and water inside of its cradle. A good thing too, as the just enough to notice incline of the trail seemed to become no kinder in the path ahead. Meanwhile, Natasha was using Pepper’s phone to send an email to Hill, and was typing away.

“Left or right?” Natasha called back, approaching a fork, and popping a cracker into her mouth.

“Right.”

Natasha deliberately turned opposite to the suggestion. “Left it is.”

Pepper didn’t question it.

****  
  


Ten minutes later, she was glad she didn’t.

A cute rest site just off the trail came into view, overlooking absolutely nothing, and surrounded by the red-orangeness of the thick forrest.

“No way.” Natasha looked around in bafflement. “Here’s your phone back.” She added as an after thought.

Pepper set the basket down on a fallen tree that would soon become a bench and accepted her phone. “It really is beautiful.” She scrolled through her sent files, and noticed that there had been no email sent out to Hill. “Did you lose the signal?”

“Sure.” Natasha offhandedly responded, walking towards the log and looking the bark up and down. “Pick up the food. Look at this.”

Pepper calmly grabbed the basket, and bent over to look at the lower half of the log. “Oh, gross,” Pepper reeled back as she saw Clint’s name etched into the log.

“This must be his view spot.” Natasha put the crackers she was eating back into the basket, then took the unit from Pepper. “We’re going back to the car.”

Pepper watched her girlfriend storm away from the endearing enclave and was at a loss for words.

“He’s always talking about it.” Natasha slowed down to walk side by side with Pepper. “It’s something his brother told him about, how it’s so magical, how Barney got all the girls there.”

The redhead shook her head, and made a hard left. “I don’t think Clint has even used it. Just likes talking about it.”

“But his name…” Pepper started.

“I’m sure Barney did it. Probably said something bullshit with it like, ‘It has your name on it, bro. All yours.’ Clint clearly ate it up.”

Natasha took large strides to get ahead of Pepper for when the path narrowed ahead. She held the basket up, setting the bottom lip against the top of her head to keep it stable away from the bushel, and her cheeks were flushed from the exertion of ranting. Her sleeve caught on a twig sticking out, and she snapped it with the force of yanking her elbow away. “Why is the path narrowing? It wasn’t like this before.”

“I think we took a wrong turn.” Pepper calmly told her, contorting her body to avoid all contact with the plants. “But you seemed so confident, I just followed. Let’s just see where this goes.”

“Fine.” Natasha suddenly sounded exhausted, and downtrodden.

They walked in silence the rest of the way, Pepper observing the way Natasha no longer walked lightly. Her feet scuffled as though her legs were made of lead, and hair frized as twigs snagged the edges.

The sun trickled its way through the canopy, bleeding light in crackles along the path like a shattered mosaic. Trailing forward and forward, Pepper noticed the area around them slowly brighten, until they happened upon an small alcove overlooking a steep hill slope descending into a babbling brook.

“Let’s stop here.” Pepper gently placed her hand on Natasha’s tense shoulder. “Is there any water in there?”

Natasha let go of the basket, the unit slamming against the dirt and bouncing slightly. She rummaged through the contents, then tossed Pepper a bottle.

“Thanks.” Pepper cracked it open, dry mouth eager to drink.

Natasha took another one for herself and found a log to sit on. “No problem.” She grunted, cracking open her own, and taking a long drink. Pepper watched the muscles in her neck move as the liquid slid down it. Natasha’s lips were pursed carefully around the mouth of the bottle, red and moist, and her eyes tightly squeezed shut. Her hair was disheveled from all the brush, and ponytail crooked. The plastic caved in as she sucked down its contents, the crackles filling the air around them until there was nothing left.

Pepper joined her on the log in silence, and for a moment, they just sat there, staring at the flowing water below, and the few animals running around it.

“Pepper,” Natasha focused straight ahead, eyes locked onto the brook, and face muted. “What are we doing?”

Pepper gazed at her, lost in the blankness of her non-expression. “What do you mean?”

“What did you mean when you said you loved me?”

Pepper’s mouth went dry again. “I meant,” She fumbled for words.

“Because we’re not soul-mates, Pepper. I’m sorry. We’re not some painting that can be analyzed and turned into an idyllic forever. We’re not this exotic pairing that says I love yous and the world freezes up and shatters into a million little pieces.” Natasha held her stoic expression, despite her shaking voice conveying otherwise. “I know people like to think that all the time. Back there, Barney, he’d always say to Clint that they were a duo, the Barton brothers stick together, they love each other in the way only brothers can. And then he just leaves. He leaves and takes everything Clint thought they shared, and everything would have been fine, except that Clint thought they were brotherly soul-mates, he and Barney. We are not that, okay?”

“I never asked us to be, or expected,” Pepper explained, feeling the pressure in her chest that someone could be so horrible to their sibling, and that it had affected Natasha so deeply. Pepper’s mind flickered to her feeling towards Tony’s dad. How he had rejected his son, and how it disgusted her, and suddenly, she felt like she understood just enough.

“I just love you.” Pepper admitted. “I love the way were in synch. I love the way we compliment each other. I love the way you fit perfectly into me when we cuddle, and how whenever your hair is down and you move, the whole room smells like roses. I love the way you delicately eat gelato, and the way you use lipstick that never comes off even after I try so hard to make it happen. I love the control you have in every little movement you do, how it’s all so precise. How I know that you are trying to look impartial right now but something about that area back there pierced through your armor and you are hurt and all I want to do give you love.”

Natasha rested her head on Pepper’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“I think we should skip the party.” Pepper slung an arm around the redhead.

Natasha nestled her head further into Pepper’s shoulder. “Is this going to be our spot?”

Pepper thought it over. “I’d like to think our spot is the leadership room.”

“Gross.” Natasha’s nose crinkled, and Pepper resisted the urge to kiss it. “But fine. This will be our second place.”

“If we’re able to find it again.” Pepper noted.

“If we ever find it again.” Natasha repeated, smiling gently, and watching the trees gently sway in the breeze.


End file.
